Even when I attended Saint Mary's College back in the early '80s, The Observer was known to push the envelope occasionally in its publications. This time you have taken the whole April Fool's "joke" too far. Disrespect of our bishop, mockery of the pro-life cause, and vulgarity in calling women by a single private body part is abhorrent. First of all, where are your basic manners; and second of all, what about journalistic ethics?
If I were a female student on the campus at Notre Dame I'd be making an appointment this afternoon with school officials over the discriminatory and hateful joke. With the privilege of being able to publish a newspaper comes the responsibility of conscientious reporting. The joke that appeared in your newspaper leaves an awful impression of a prestigious and time-honored Catholic university, not to mention the newspaper itself.
As luck would have it I had recently copied and pasted The Observer Web site link to an email group, solely created to help Catholic parents help their sons and daughters find a college in the next couple years. They had heard negative public relations about Notre Dame in the news and I was encouraging them to give the University a second look. I had Googled information on the recent Edith Stein Project and decided to put The Observer's page on it as reference. Imagine my embarrassment at knowing these parents were reading today's paper, where the joke was just a click away.
What appeared today was a waste of education, money and talent. As a member of the Catholic press myself, I couldn't be more disappointed in those hoping to make a career in the media very soon, and who are off to a very bad start. You owe a whole group of people a public apology.
Sincerely,
Theresa Thomas
alumna
Saint Mary's Class of 1985
April 1
