The Chronicle statement on opinion piece

R. Chelsea Allison, editor of The Chronicle, offered the following statement to WRAL about a report on a column published in the May 15, 2008, issue of the Duke University student newspaper.

Kristin is an award-winning journalist, and a mark of her tenure as a regular columnist was that she opined on a number of topics and institutions very critically — including Duke. I support the decision to run the column, but there have been a number of columns in my time at Duke that I've agreed with and disagreed with.

At The Chronicle, we value the right to free speech, and I don't think that whether I agree with the views in a column is necessarily relevant to making editorial decisions. During column editing, we check facts but do not alter the opinions.

The opinions expressed within columns are the author's alone and do not reflect those of the paper or our staff. "Summa cum loony" has sparked a very passionate dialogue, and we have published and plan to continue to publish responses from NCCU alums and others with interest in the issue.