On Sunday, April 9, we, a group of Saint Mary's and Notre Dame students, faculty and administration, gathered to discuss your publication of the "Jockular" comic on April 6, 2006. Among this discussion was our consensus that the repetitious joke published in The Observer is deeply insulting and unacceptable. Despite the common history of pride and respect Saint Mary's College and the University of Notre Dame have shared over the years, animosity has grown between the schools, which is evident through White and Powers' comic.
It is distressing that Saint Mary's students help fund editors who choose to include degrading comments in our campus newspaper. Why didn't the current Notre Dame editors of The Observer understand how unacceptable this is in a professional publication? What is the deeper issue that Jockular poorly articulated with its "parasite" comic?
While this is not the first time Saint Mary's students have found "Jockular" offensive, we do not want to have our dignity as students, as an institution or as a community called into question again. As long as we continue to fund and support this publication - and are represented by it - we demand that you make a commitment to us, the Saint Mary's community, to avoid this issue in the future by holding yourselves to a higher standard and exercising greater editorial responsibility in the future.
Megan Osbergerand over 150 Saint Mary's supportersContact Megan at mosber01@saintmarys.edu for a complete list of signatures.April 20
