Wrong Malfeasance

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Your decision to print the fact of Mr. Conboy's plagiarism is most unfortunate. Of course, you are completely within your legal rights, but that is not the point. The CRIMSON as an undergraduate organization is not and should not be the vehicle by which public shame is brought to an undergraduate. If the CRIMSON is to be a scandal sheet, why does it not report every instance in which a student is expelled, or, for that matter, is called to the Dean's Office?

The quest for hot news of this sort can only lead you to greater and greater breaches of good taste and common decency. Such an expose article embarrasses the "Advocate," creates antagonism among undergraduates against the CRIMSON, and leaves a bad taste in the reader's mouth. In short, "to expose malfeasance" OF THIS SORT is not within the province of the CRIMSON. Stephen S. Rosenfeld '53   Nicholas Brown '53

There is quite a difference between a student's personal relations with the College administration and his published work which is offered for sale to the Harvard public. If there were not, it would be impossible to make critical comments in reviewing the Advocate or any other student publication or production. Since the CRIMSON simply republished matter that had already been published, adding no comments or judgments of its own, any "bad taste" left by the piece must have come from the original ingredients.