Dear Editor,

I am writing to address my concerns about an article written in the last addition of The Collegian.

Tyler Remmel’s “In dealing with tragedy.” I will first start by saying I respect that there is a right to freedom of press and speech in our country, and that this was an opinion piece.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That being said, I feel that Remmel’s article was factually weak and pointed to a lack of effort in gathering sources.

I was on the trip with Mitch Ramsey and saw him fall. I have also been in close contact with his parents and my fellow students who were on the trip.

I have been relaying all information that Ramsey’s parents have sent to Facebook to keep the university students in the loop with Ramsey’s progress.

I would like to start with Remmel’s claim, “they weren’t sure if his family wanted this getting out yet. As if the news of this terrible accident was only limited to his closest friends and family.”

As I said, his family gave constant updates from day one that I was re-posting for campus.

This strongly contradicts his statement in the article that “everyone deserves to know because it affects us all.”

I also see a flaw in his articles factuality about gathering information.

It was brought to my attention by Dr. Hudson, who provided an account of the events leading up to Mitch’s hospitalization in the article written by Justine Ackerman titled, “A vigil for Mitch,” that Remmel interviewed Hudson for that front-page piece.

If Remmel thought that we were all trying to “keep news of the accident under wraps” then I apologize, because I was under the impression that we were cooperating as much as any students and faculty who were dealing with severe trauma and shock would.

This brings about the question that has been on my mind since The Collegian was published last week.

What was the purpose of Remmel’s article, which contradicts the accurate and well-written article by Ackerman (that Remmel collected some of the information for)? I asked this question to The Collegian’s academic advisor Matt Tullis early on Nov. 18.

His response was that he had not actually read the article yet and proceeded to read it in front of me for the first time.

I found this shocking because I assumed he would have had to read it before publishing. I hope this gives Remmel, Tullis and the other writers of The Collegian something to think about, and I would like to thank The Collegian for making an already horrible week just a little bit worse on us all, and for disappointing this frequent reader.

Nick Painter