I am excited to take the reins of Red Letter Daze. Though indebted to outgoing editor Leigha Kemmett, I will strive to make my own contribution to this publication during my tenure. However, it seems that controversy does not hold off until a new editor can get her bearings.

Under the banner of Cornell Diaries, the Feb. 26 edition of Daze featured a first person account of a student suffering from an eating disorder. While Cornell Diaries has been known to draw strong reactions in the past — both negative and positive — this particular diary outright offended some editors and former editors of The Sun, reasonable people who thought that Cornell Diaries was not the forum to address such an important issue.

Their criticism has brought up some valid points. While I agree that it was short-sighted not to have included an introduction explaining the importance of the diary’s subject matter, the pros to including the piece clearly outweighed the cons, in my opinion. I would like to take this opportunity to explain our reasoning — to say some of the things that we should have mentioned last week:

February is National Eating Disorders Awareness Month, yet I saw very few signs over the last month that this campus recognized the gravity of this issue. So many of us here at Cornell have a friend struggling with an eating disorder — or suffer from one ourselves, whether or not we admit it or not. It was never our intent to exploit this girl or in any way encourage or legitimize her behavior. However, it was our goal to provide some insight into the mind of a person with this disease — this information could be useful for college students and those who interact with them.

In regards to this particular diary (and any other article that appears in Daze), I invite each and every reader to share your reactions with us at redletterdaze@cornellsun.com. Help us bring you the best possible weekend edition that we can.

Looking forward to a great year,

Allie Perez