You may have noticed two weeks ago that copies of the Collegian were hard to find. In fact, after Feb. 11 (the day after the papers arrived on campus), they were essentially gone.

Our first thought was that we had produced a great newspaper that everyone wanted to read immediately. It was later in the day, though, after about the fifth or sixth person asked me if I had seen any copies of the paper, that we began to suspect foul play.

By Monday, we had heard that several groups of students close to one of our front-page subjects were unhappy with a story and had lifted as many copies of the Collegian as possible. Which, of course, is theft.

The story in question was headlined “Student arrested for OMVI,” and was on the bottom of the front page, along with a photo of the two cars this student allegedly rammed into in the Patterson parking lot. (This story can still be read at www.ashlandcollegian.com.) OMVI, for those unfamiliar, stands for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

We’ve heard that some students didn’t think this story belonged in the Collegian. Others have said our story was grossly inaccurate.

As for the former, this story absolutely deserved to be in the newspaper. It is, by its very nature, news. How often does someone who is allegedly drunk slam into two parked cars in an on-campus parking lot (one of those cars being a Porsche, no less)? It hasn’t happened in my three years here as adviser of the Collegian (or even in my four years here as a student in the 1990s).

One analogy I have made over the last two weeks to anyone who has asked me why this story belonged in the newspaper goes like this: If this student had been pulled over for crossing the center line on Claremont Avenue, perhaps down by Wendy’s, and subsequently been issued a citation for driving while intoxicated, the Collegian would not have done a story. It wouldn’t have happened on campus. There would have been no personal property damage. And most likely, no one would have known about it except for this student’s close personal friends.

But it didn’t happen off campus. It happened on campus, and Safety Services was called to the scene, along with the Ashland City Police, who cited the student with OMVI.

People were going to talk about this whether or not the Collegian printed a story. And if they read our story, they at least would have had accurate information with which to talk.

Which brings us to the claim that our story was grossly inaccurate.

We’ve heard this phrase issued a couple times, and yet no one has been able to tell us exactly how our story was grossly inaccurate.

And if people believe this story is grossly inaccurate, then they should take that up with the Ashland City Police, whose police report from the incident we used for our story, and with Dave McLaughlin, director of Safety Services, who gave the Collegian additional information about the incident.