[Disclaimer: This article was originally published for April Fools’ Day, and it should not be interpreted as factual reporting.]
Dear Free Press,
For years you have provided me with a consistent source of news about Western Maryland/McDaniel, but you’ve been eerily quiet on social media and your website for weeks now. You were doing okay this year, but then you let me down.
As an alumna who tries to stay as involved as possible, I’m concerned even on a personal level. Back when I was a student at Western Maryland in the early 1990s, I spent a lot of time writing for the Phoenix (a former name of Western Maryland’s student paper) and even spent two years as an editor. Your continued inactivity has made me worry that the college paper might be in great decline and on its way to demise.
This has been going on ever since your most recent print issue. I enjoyed the paper, but I’d like some consistency. I hope another print issue comes soon and that the Free Press gets everything together.
I understand that you’re at the mercy of voluntary effort by insanely busy, pessimistic students, but we cannot allow our college paper to dissolve entirely. You were doing okay this year—I thought perhaps the school paper was improving—but I am now left wondering about the cause of your silence.
Beyond your continued absence, you keep publishing fake news – it conflicts with my opinions and is therefore fake. I hope that you adopt the principles of real journalism that we adhered to back in the good old days that I remember with the Phoenix.
As I consider myself a prominent donor, I will also be complaining to Roger Casey; a bad student newspaper is a sign of bad students and a bad school. I’ve also emailed your faculty advisor rather than contacting you directly since, despite your status as adults, you are not entitled to fitting respect.
I hope you can get everything together and actually get around to publishing articles again. I’ll be watching.
Best wishes,
Susan Smith, class of 1995
Editor’s note: the Free Press fully intends to address Ms. Smith’s concerns on April 1.
