The Sept. 19 Linfield Review article about the alleged sexual assault on campus was a difficult article to write. The sensitive nature of this article demanded that the staff proceed with caution and respect to the victim.

After hearing rumors of an arrest on campus, The Review went to the McMinnville Police Department to confirm the name of the student and the charges. Throughout the course of writing the article, reporters Helen Lee and Rosa Johnson spoke with Linfield’s Director of Communications Mardi Mileham, Director of CPS Ron Noble, and Deputy District Attorney Alicia Eagan.

The Review has received a great deal of feedback from students and faculty, and it will continue to be a forum for campus-wide discussion of events by publishing letters to the editor.

Many of the negative responses that were received are concerned with similar issues.

Some people feel that The Review has tarnished Linfield’s reputation by reporting on sexual assaults. The Linfield Review is a campus newspaper dedicated to providing the Linfield community with news, whether it highlights the college’s accomplishments or brings an important and uncomfortable issue to the students’ attention.

Students and their families, staff, and faculty deserve to know what happens on Linfield’s campus, and by reporting on these types of issues, The Linfield Review helps provide transparency to the way that the college handles them. This is especially important when students are not aware of events that took place on and off campus when students’ safety is a concern.

Another primary concern that the staff has heard is that some students are upset about the details of the victim’s injuries in the article.

The difficult ethical decisions that were made in the course of reporting on this story were not taken lightly, nor were they made solely by one person. The staff and its advisor took each detail into consideration, and decided that including the extent of the victim’s injuries would alert the Linfield community to the brutality of the event.

This is vital to starting an open, campus-wide discussion about sexual assault at Linfield because it serves as a wake up call to students, faculty, and staff that rape does happen on this campus.

If people shy away from the violent nature of crimes, then such crimes become easier to ignore and their significance is downplayed.

The Linfield Review’s staff is committed to making the campus a safer place by reporting on crimes on campus and holding the administration accountable for the way it deals with the safety of students.

The Linfield Review stands by its reporting of the alleged sexual assault, and welcomes feedback from the Linfield community about any article.

-The Linfield Review Staff