AS A columnist with The Cavalier Daily, I get a lot of e-mails.
Some agree with something that I wrote. Some don't. Most are very professional about it.
I do, however, get my fair share of mail that's either harassing or just plain mean. I would, at times, like to be able to hit "reply" and tell these people exactly what they can do with these e-mails, but as I am a regular member of The Cavalier Daily, it reflects poorly on the paper to do so. Plus, I am a lady.
Guest columnists, however, are another story. In light of a recent incident concerning an exchange between a guest columnist and a reader, the Cavalier Daily needs to clarify its relationship with guest columnists in order to avoid all of this hoopla in the future.
Ali Ahmad, chairman of the College Republicans, wrote a guest column in the University Forum section of the Opinion page about Virginia's role in the upcoming presidential election. A reader sent him a response, which led to several exchanges between the two that were, well, less than pleasant.
The reader, who is not affiliated with the University, complained to the ombudsman that one of the Cavalier Daily's columnists, not realizing that Ahmad was not a regular staff member, was extremely rude to him in an e-mail. The Cavalier Daily decided that this reflected poorly on the paper and now there's a big picture of Ahmad in the Cav Daily office with a red circle and slash through it.
No, not really. But Ahmad will no longer be asked to write guest columns. He's essentially been banned from the Opinion page.
Whatever words were exchanged in this e-mail mini-battle isn't really anyone's business, nor is it the point. The question that arises from this incident is, what kind of precedent does this set for anyone who may wish to write a guest column in the future?
An opinion column always makes someone out there angry. It's expected that people will disagree with you, and that they will tell you so. Regular columnists know this, and know that they are representing the paper should they chose to reply. Guest columnists, however, appear on the Opinion page only once, and are usually there as a representative of another organization.
The exchange between Ahmad and the reader was essentially a private one, and became The Cavalier Daily's business only when the reader brought the paper back into the conflict by e-mailing the ombudsman. Ahmad was asked to write a column as a representative of the College Republicans and was credited in the paper as such. It would seem that he should be able to e-mail whoever he wants to without having to answer to The Cavalier Daily later on.
The other problem involves the ever-thinning line between what's appropriate and what isn't. Any columnist will tell you that the dialogue resulting from a reader response to a column is usually heated and often testy, especially when the reader really disagrees with the column. While we regular columnists are basically seasoned pros, guest columnists often aren't prepared for the onslaught they may receive from a column. Where do you draw the line between a "proper" response and a "rude" response, especially when the readers don't have to follow such guidelines, and to what extent is The Cavalier Daily responsible for the private e-mails of its guest columnists?
The paper is generous in allowing guest columns to run, and common sense dictates that a guest columnist would respect that. However, common sense also dictates that a guest columnist is just that, a guest, and not representative of the paper itself. If The Cavalier Daily feels that any actions taking by a guest columnist in response to a column reflects back on the paper, then The Cavalier Daily needs to specifically tell guest columnists to behave themselves in correspondence instead of banning them after the fact.
The relationship between The Cavalier Daily and its guest columnists is vaguely defined. The paper needs to let guest columnists know what they're getting into before the world reads their opinions.
Kristin Brown's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at kbrown@cavalierdaily.com.
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