The extracted quote used in the story about the selection of the Collegian editor for the coming year (page 1, March 24 issue) was absolutely appalling. Page 1 of a newspaper is not the place for staff members to publish personal quarrels, which is a lesson that Collegian reporters and editors should pick up somewhere along the line. The story was not about the past -- it was about the future.

As a former staff member and also a former news staff adviser at the Collegian, I can tell you that differences of philosophies and opinions are not new at college newspapers, nor should they be. The newspaper staff should be buzzing with differences in opinion. But those differences should not become personal vendettas. In all the years I have read and worked with the Collegian, I never have seen a display of airing dirty laundry on the news pages until March 24. It was not only appalling, it was embarrassing.

To have extracted such a quote, from a former Collegian staff member to boot, is total cheap-shot journalism -- the worst kind of manipulation of a news story that page editors can do. It damages the credibility of the Collegian and of every one of its staff members.

If you read through the whole story, and got to the part where that extracted quote came from, you'd have seen that it was not explained at all - it was just stuck in there, apparently for the satisfaction of those who had differences with the current editor. A typical reader would have no idea what the former staff member was talking about, so why put it in the story? But most of all, why extract it and use it, in effect, as a subheading for the story?

The job of the Collegian editor is impossible and thankless (especially considering the editor is also a full-time student) and the support of the staff is vital to producing a high-quality newspaper. When the editors spend their time arguing among themselves instead of working together, they sacrifice what they are working for -- the newspaper. The reduction in quality of the paper is the inevitable, and very apparent, result.

Let's hope that during the coming year, at least by the time another editor selection takes place at the Collegian, the editors will have grown up a bit and ceased to fight their in-house fights on the front page. Otherwise, perhaps the editors should consider changing the paper's format to tabloid -- you know, like those things you read in the supermarket checkout line.