I am writing in regards to Opinion Editor Daniel Watts’ Nov. 17 article, “”Divest A.S.: How ASUCSD wastes its time and money.”” In the article, Watts makes a statement about A.S. Commissioner of Communications Frances Galvon so flagrantly untrue that it can be taken seriously only as a personal attack.

Watts claims that Galvon distributes media allocations based on a formula ‹ the more a publication asks for, the more it gets. Anyone who has had any experience at all with Galvon’s office would know that she spent hours this summer rewriting the A.S. Media Charter to explain the criteria of the funding process. This includes the number and size of issues, the cost of previous printings, and consistency in publishing. Further, Galvon requires all media organizations to show receipts from previous printings at funding hearings.

This information is public. A guide is handed to each media organization at the time of registration, and it is available online in A.S.’s “”Quick Documents”” section at http://as.ucsd.edu/quickdocs/ index.php.

It is ludicrous to insinuate that Galvon goes through all this trouble only to ignore the findings. Holding an office that makes funding recommendations, Galvon inevitably gets enough grief without wild accusations about her person being propagated in a campuswide publication. Watts should check his facts before casually making false statements that are damaging to individuals.

– Lawrence Marcus

President, Society of Professional Journalists at UCSD