Thank you Gene Deisinger, assistant director for the clinical services at the Student Counseling Center for pointing out that one of the many functions of the Iowa State Daily is to promote student drinking.

In last week’s Campus Reader, Deisinger was quoted as saying that “Every day there is at least a half page blotter that says, ‘Hey look at all of the people who drink.'”

We here at the Daily have scoured every Daily Blotter we could find, and in no place could we find a sentence that called attention to student drinking in such a manner.

The Blotter did, however, point out all of the people who were cited or arrested for various criminal behaviors including prostitution, minor on the premises, OWI, drug use, underage drinking, warrants for arrest and many other offenses.

It’s not true that the Daily ever condoned any of these offenses. No where in the Daily offices are there brothels, hemp plants, bouncers, live bands or beer tappers. The Blotter also does not run every day. It usually runs approximately three times a week.

Deisinger said there is a lack of articles about those students who didn’t drink. Except for the Blotter and the occasional report on an alcohol related crime, Daily articles reflect most aspect of college life — including drinking. Religion, politics, ideas and accomplishments summarize the content.

Editorial employees at the Daily are students learning and writing about their world in the unique way that they see it. Alcohol is not cited as a source for a GSB decision or for the tenuring of a professor.

The student body and staff at Iowa State is proud of its work and wouldn’t credit Budweiser or Jim Beam.

Besides, where is it the responsibility of the Daily to lead the student body in the interest of drinking? Opinions are to be left to the Opinion page. And, to the best of our ability, facts are left to the reader everywhere else.

Please read the Blotter in the same way we do, as a reflection of the student body and the Ames community, not as a clairvoyant dissertation or the premonition of things to come.

What Deisinger should recognize is that while her comments appear on page 5 of the Campus Reader, if one turns to page 6, Ames’ own Tattooed Guru, Scott Andresen, has his latest column titled, “Drinking is College.”

Thank you, too, Mr. Andresen, for proving our point.