As classmates and friends, we would like to express our admiration, support, and endorsement for Betsy Fowler, a second-year law student at BYU who currently serves as the Sports Chair of the student association. An unfortunate miscommunication arising from the cancellation of the annual 5K competition between the law schools of the University of Utah and Brigham Young University – called Race Judicata – prompted an unfortunate editorial in the Dec. 2nd edition of The Daily Universe that intoned a negative image of our classmate and friend.
Without any need for justifying the decisions surrounding the cancellation of the race, or responding to the comments in the editorial, we simply express our support for the decisions and character of Betsy. We are grateful for her efforts to organize intramural sports and other athletic events and trust her discretion as our representative.
Additionally, we respectfully request that The Daily Universe exercise greater care and judgment in selecting letters to the Editor that disparage the names and reputations of members of the community. While mindful of the cherished freedoms of expression and of the press guaranteed in our Constitution, we believe that these interests are not threatened by careful discretion in selecting editorials that focus on criticisms of policies without resorting to personal attacks on individual character, which are difficult to properly defend once assailed in a public forum.
Michael Erickson
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Brooke Wilkins
Provo, Utah
