I must take issue with the recent editorial taking the University to task on allegedly keeping the student body in the dark about the Chappell, Engle, and Ener cases. There is no appropriate forum to talk “out of school” about these cases. Moreover, these people have a right to privacy (or to rest in peace) until their fate is determined in the appropriate manner, as free as possible from campus gossip. Divulging details about Engle’s pending case, for example, when the woman has two children among the University student body in the name of “community” seems contradictory. Yes, the student body has a right to know an accounting of the $90,000 stolen, and that is what insurance policies are for.

In the case of Art Chappell, whom I know personally from working with him as an undergrad, he is entitled to due process free from any potentially damaging statements coming from the University or the greater University Community. The Students’ right to know is not an unlimited privilege. It is subject to the rights of the accused, and in some sad cases, the deceased.

J. Philip Faranda1989