We got letters

Some were thoughtful, some reactionary and some downright stupid. Here is a sampling. You decide which is which. We’re printing them unedited. More can be found here

I just read your piece on the website, after having heard about its controversial nature on the local news. I wanted to thank you for the “no BS” tone you took in taking the University’s reputation as a party school to task. Anyone who says the article should be toned down is lying to themselves if they think telling it like is does the University a disservice.

I just graduated, with Honors, from CSU Chico. The education I received was, in my opinion, of high caliber, from dedicated faculty. It is a shame that I, or the many fellow students of whom I know who also worked hard to get their diploma, must have the value of our degree questioned because of those foolish students who have wasted their opportunity. Calling a disgrace a disgrace is exactly what this University, and Town, needs. Losing lives for the sake of The Party is the lamest of ways to leave this world. We all can, and should, set a much higher standard for ourselves, our school, and our world.

J Topel
received via e-mail

Josh:

Caught your riveting piece in the CN&R of June 16. A little behind on the publication, no matter. Just one question for ya Josh, where’d you earn your degree, if you have one? Writing for a rag, like the CN&R, I’d bet everything it wasn’t an ivy league institution. Hell I’d even wager it wasn’t even greater than a community college.

The article is a perfect display of immaturity. Even you must believe that making a blanket assumption about the past and present students of the university based on some mistakes made by a few greek affiliated students is bullshit.

You sound like a jackass.

Robert F. Bennett
Law Clerk to Craig C. Sheffer

As the father of a 17-year-old girl I know that you have to get tough sometimes to get attention. Good job.

Gary
in Sacramento

I wanted to let you know how deeply offended I was at the article titled, “The Party Rules". If I stretch my imagination, I think I can come up with the point of the story, but I do have to stretch. Not only was the language used in the article offensive to read, I’m not sure what the message was. Are you trying to say that going to school at Chico State is a complete waste of time and money? That the students there are only interested in, I’ll use the article’s words, “getting laid". I’m also offended that you imply a Chico diploma is “useless". That’s odd, because I know of many companies that actually recruit Chico grads, I know because I worked for one of those companies.

unsigned

I am writing this on behalf of the “Party” article.

First off, I am a graduate from Chico State from May of 04? and I have done quite well for myself! I have a great job that I got from my degree at Chico, and know many others that are probably making ten times more than you with their Chico degrees. So maybe you are the only person that has a worthless degree, or wait do you even have a degree yet?

I can’t believe that someone would go this low to write a bull shit article like this! Yes, you are right, many unfortunate things happen in college. But those unfortunate things happen at EVERY college, not just Chico! Go outside your box and do some research! And yes, I was in a sorority at Chico. But you have no right to point us out as being the problem. What about the sports teams, or the ignorant people that form their own clubs like many do to get the same thing we got out of Greek life. But ours is a national accredited organization that has been around for decades. We do ten times more good for the community then bad and that’s all people like you can put out there! Have you even stopped for a minute to think about how we put aside time to dedicate our time and energy to feeding the homeless, raising money for the needy, donating clothes, holding a blood drive that has broken records for the highest donated blood in Northern California, involving the community in family oriented activities, involving ourselves in a children awareness fair and having all the children from the area to come to our campus for the day; I could go on and on about the great things that Greeks do, what have you done?!

This article was very poorly written and a bad choice in character! How could you put these poor innocent people that have died and their families into your article, I’m sure they don’t want to be in it! I’m sure they are hurting enough! The way that you have presented them in this article is crude! It is a shame that things happened the way they did, but don’t point any fingers at the entire school of Chico State or how much my degree mean in the society!!!

Unsigned
received via e-mail

Josh, great article ("The Party Rules")…especially the closing 3 paragraphs. Although I’m guessing you are not the most popular person in Chico (w/ univ., students, merchants, your publisher?), you did a real service to the college community and hopefully made some students think a little more about what it really means to grow and learn. Every college should have similar “rules” (tailored to their own specific situation, of course) available for new students to read…..

Bob Rynearson
McArthur, CA