From the Desk of: Ed Novak

Dear Founders Residents:

This is Ed Novak, director of college relations. I exist. Really. Not an urban myth. If you want to see what I look like, go to: www.etown.edu/collegerelations/staff.html.

Also, thank you for the reception you gave Ted Long the other week when he visited you to talk about "the situation." The administrators at this college have understood since the beginning of the semester the inconvenience that has been placed upon you by the poltergeist that has invaded the network in your quarter. I believe that we are doing everything humanly possible to find the source of the problem. We will get the problem fixed. You will get your network back. In the meantime, I celebrate the ways you have figured out how to work around this mess.

Dear Everyone Else:

I would like to highlight a significant event being hosted on campus this weekend and next. Twenty-two Etown students are set to star in the College’s production of "The Laramie Project" which will open tonight under the direction of Terri Mastrobuono. This play deals with the effects of the 1998 murder of a gay University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard on the town of Laramie, Wyoming.

The actors will take a subject that is a lightning rod for controversy – homosexuality – and make you forget for a couple of hours that people can be gay or bi or straight. You will totally sympathize with the characters who are homophobes. You will cry with the characters most hurt by the murder of their friend. Regardless of our beliefs, we will all be ultimately uplifted by the humanity of the people of Laramie.

If you are disturbed by the prospect of what is in this play, go anyway and listen with an open heart. If you are curious, go and learn. If you embrace the subject, go and celebrate. Just go.