As a former student of journalism in Boston University’s own College of Communication, I fully appreciate the value of accuracy in reporting. Now, as a student in BU’s College of Arts and Sciences, I still strive to achieve the greatest degree of accuracy possible in all my writing. I should hope that reporters at The Daily Free Press share this value.
My appreciation for accuracy was raised to a personal level in the April 1 article about on-campus housing (“1019, Hamilton House give students peace, quiet,” pg. 1). When a Daily Free Press reporter stopped by my room, I invited her in to sit down and encouraged her to ask questions to me and to my roommates. We were all happy to accommodate her with our responses. Imagine my disappointment when I noticed that I had been misquoted in the story, and my names (both first, and last) had been misspelled.
This disappointment was fleeting, but the damage was not yet done. The misquote in the Free Press ignited a spark with BU’s Director of Housing who was concerned, with reason, when he read in the Free Press that a room in 1019 had unscrewed the door from its hinges! Indeed, our room is a social one, and we do keep our door open at all times when we are home, but the door was not unscrewed from its hinges.
Today, I found out through the 1019 housing director, Jennifer Battaglino, that a Buildings ‘ Grounds repairman had received a maintenance request and had stopped by our room to fix our door. We had, in fact, temporarily arranged for our door to remain open without the use of a doorstop (let me assure you, our door was still on its hinges). We had full intentions to restore the door’s ability to automatically close by the end of this year. I sincerely hope, for very selfish reasons, that there will not be a charge for these “repairs.”
The intent of this letter is not to assign blame for anything that was done on my or any of my suitemates behalf, nor is it my intent to blame the Free Press for the incident. In the future, we will use a doorstop. However, I would like to bring to the attention of your reporters the very real importance of accuracy. I sincerely respect the earnest work that daily goes into the creation and distribution of an on-campus newspaper and I appreciate your continued efforts.
Kristin Tringe CAS ’06
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