10 September 2007

I heart alumni newsletters...



but how much should the alumni newsletter staff fact check?

A note to people who read the "Class Notes" section of their college alumni magazines: You never know where those tidbits are coming from. I know I wrote in one year that after becoming bored with touring the world with my "musical group" I was now "in my third year studying neurosurgery at The University of Western Ontario" and they printed it! Ha!

So now two male New York graduates of American University filed a lawsuit claiming their alumni magazine falsely stated they were just-married life partners.

The Post says: "Ross Weil, 29, and Brett Royce, 28, college buddies and former New York housemates" who are now looking for $1.5 million in damages from American University's American Magazine for "gross negligence." The Class Notes stated that Weil and Royce had married last year and were "leaders of a nonexistent group called the Gay Rights Brigade."

Weil and Royce's lawyer said told the Post his clients didn't submit the information, "No one contacted my clients to check the information...It has nothing to do with homophobia." No - not there's anything wrong with that!

Anyway, American Magazine says it does check the information, but that's a lot of legwork for those class notes. Obviously it must've been some guy playing a joke on Ross and Brett but I guess not only did they find it unfunny, they felt the joke was done maliciously and the class notes tidbit was called in by someone who didn't like them.

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