April 8, 2008 9:26 p.m.

Please click HERE for a .pdf copy of the 8 April Issue

 After a racous Student Government meeting on the evening of April 8, 2008, members of the Driftwood's editorial staff discovered that hundreds of copies of the Driftwood had been thrown in the trash.

Most of the SG meeting centered around accusations that a student, Jimmy Wylie, made during last week's Chancellor's Forum. Wylie made a speech to the Chancellor in which he detailed problems he saw in the operations of Student Government, and with alleged improprieties in the activities of SG President Cody Comfort and Treasurer Cherie Maser.

His speech, and an exploration of the accusations, was the lead story in this week's paper. You can access the issue as a .pdf at the top of this page, or click here.

Members of the Student Government Senate -- as well as Comfort and Maser -- angrily took the Driftwood to task over the coverage, and engaged Wylie in a free-for-all debate for over an hour. After the meeting broke up, the editorial staff found the paper discarded, and called the UNO Police immediately.

Throwing away the newspaper is a crime. Individual copies are provided to students on a free basis each week, with each additional copy costing $1. This is to ensure that this exact thing doesn't occur.

Each of these hundreds of copies thrown away, as documented by Driftwood staff and the police, is not only destruction of state property and a violation of the First Amendment, but theft of state property. The person or persons who felt this childish and idiotic act neccessary are going to go to jail -- possibly for a long time.

Before the start of the meeting, one of the Senators, angry at an editorial cartoon printed on our opinion page, stated to two reporters that "Part of our (fraternity) rituals is to take all the copies of the paper." He was told by a reporter that if he did, he would be paying a dollar a copy for them. The senator responded that he thought the papers were free, and was instructed by the reporter of the additional copy policy.

The only thing we can urge is that the person(s) responsible turn themselves into the authorities with all due haste. If this is done, the Driftwood will not prosecute the perpetrators. If not, we will do what ever is in our power as citizens of this State and members of this tight-knit community to ensure that the silly, short-sighted person responsible for this is dealt with, both by the law and through the University's judicial system.

Anyone with information regarding this crime can contact the Driftwood editorial staff at any time, with our promise of full confidentiality. Please call our newsroom at (504) 280-6378, or e-mail us at driftwood.editor@uno.edu

Please pardon our appearance while this site is updated for the Spring 2008 semester.

Questions and comments can be directed to our editorial staff.

Newsroom: (504) 280-6378
driftwood@uno.edu