To the editors:

As an alumnus and employee of Villanova I wanted to express my heartfelt disappointment with the choices made in last week’s Villanovan. I believe I echo the sentiment of most people whom I encountered on campus last Friday. The decision to headline a week old story concerning the suspensions of the Villanova Men’s basketball team, over the three day old celebration that was our Women’s upset over UConn was unfortunate. The Women’s victory is being mentioned as one of the greatest upsets in NCAA Women’s Basketball history and is one of the top ten sporting achievements in Villanova’s long and illustrious athletic history. It is a shame that a negative men’s story warrants the spotlight over an extremely positive women’s story.

I am proud that the paper addresses the truth and does not shy away from negative stories. However, what does it say about Villanova and our community that a historic achievement is relegated to back page fodder? Yes, The Villanovan is a newspaper for the students. However, many of our alumni and most visiting high school students read this paper as well. Villanova receives enough disparaging press from outside media sources. It pains me that our very own newspaper has succumbed to these tabloid tactics. There was a much better way to have handled both of these stories. “Nova hoops: thrill of victory, agony of deceit”, found on page 37 of the sports section, was a more apropos front page caption. This could have served as a more diplomatic headline.

With all that is wrong in the world, you had an opportunity to prominently display some uplifting news. You had a choice to run a banner article that could have boosted the University’s morale and improved our image to those outside our community who read The Villanovan, but instead you chose the road more traveled.

Gerard M. Brett Class of 1998