To the Editor:

Someone has stepped over the line. In the October 31st edition (of the Daily), an article on the front page of the lowa State Daily written by Jennifer Holland gave the details of a busted Barn Party on Saturday night that resulted in four arrests of lowa State students. I’m not saying the reporting was wrong or bad, just the extent of it was disturbing.

I agree that the news was relevant and must have been seen as necessary by the staff in Hamilton Hall, but what wasn’t considered was the privacy of those students involved. Names and ages listed in the paper would have been sufficient information for the public, but to release majors and home addresses is an invitation for people to find those individuals charged and make their lives worse off than they already are. It would be hard enough dealing with such a situation around your friends let alone having the whole university know who you are and where you live. This was a poor judgment call by the editors. Thank goodness the phone numbers weren’t released, now those looking for trouble have to actually open the phone book to find the “hooligans.”

Also, the four individuals charged were first time offenders and will probably receive simple misdemeanor charges and a small fine, quite different from that of “bootlegging.” Talk has also been that these individuals will be let off totally and the charges dropped. If this would occur, releasing the “criminals'” names would have been done in vain and inevitably only done harm to their reputations as students at Iowa State. This projects a bad image of the university without reason and leaves everyone looking bad, not just those directly involved.

My advice to the writers and editors at the Daily is a simple request, think about what you are writing and who you will hurt before rushing into a story. You may find out you have damaged someone’s reputation without getting the truth. Maybe a talk with those who were there and know the whole story would make your writing that much stronger. A little editing, and we save the whole university a lot of trouble and useless headaches.

Aaron Hamann

Freshman

Aerospace Engineering