I was horrified to walk past a campus newspaper stand today and read that your cover story was that Emerton's death had been confirmed a suicide ("Student Death Confirmed Suicide," March 18). It is unclear to me how the editors of this newspaper were unable to consider the privacy rights of Emerton's friends and family. Though I am sure that this information was circulating through the campus by way of mouth, you have now officially announced to the entire UB community that Emerton chose to take his life. Would you have run a front-page article if a freshman had died due to succumbing to cancer?
In the future, I would advise that you think about the rights and needs of the surviving family members and friends before your need to run "big" stories in your newspaper. I am disgusted by your choice to run this article and your decision to publish both his name and a picture.
