With regards to The State News column (“‘U’ should not have to put up with hate crimes,” SN 10/2), I would like to say that I am appalled. I attended this meeting with more than 100 people at it, and it was as productive as any hate crime forum I have ever seen - and I have been to several. Dottie Boyce, throughout your column you accuse Jennifer Carboni and Bailey Hall of practicing punitive law. With regards to further incidents you proceed to say, “If and when it (a hate crime) does (happen again), I urge everyone to show more support.” How are you practicing preventative law then?

Now, instead of using your energy to help something creative come out of this problem, you have used your own precious time pointing out a problem that people are already aware of, and that is that hate crimes are bad. Well, people know that already. Furthermore, the very people who worked hard to handle the situation are now being lambasted by someone who knows only what they read in the paper. I was at that meeting and did not see you there. I met with hall officials and briefly discussed it. Did you? I must say that I am furious to see ignorance of some students combatted with ignorance of someone who did not gather all of the facts before she made a less-than-educated decision.

So I would like to end on this note, rather than piddle time away from here on out. I encourage you to meet with Carboni and Patrick Walker and take steps to solve this problem rather than get your own kicks off of lambasting people who honestly don’t deserve it.

Furthermore, I am bothered I had to write this response in the first place, but I am very angry that you attacked the people who championed this. I encourage you to gather all the facts now and make a more educated decision in the future.

Jim McEvoy
human biology junior