On November 6, 2006, Tom Tritton, President of Haverford College, issued the following statement:

Over the past week Haverford College has received many comments regarding an opinion piece written by David Langlieb, a recent graduate who resides in Brooklyn, New York, in a section of our alumni magazine entitled, "Moved to Speak."

Regrettably, Mr. Langlieb’s attempt at satire and creative writing failed, resulting in hurt and anger of many people on and off campus, including those in the extended Polish-American community.

While we advocate and support free speech, we also recognize that good judgment is called for in any publication that is issued by the College. Haverford's Quaker traditions of individual dignity, tolerance, commitment to diversity, inclusion, social justice and peaceful conflict resolution have permeated our community for 173 years. In this particular case we have not reflected our most time-honored values. For this we are deeply sorry and apologize. We trust, however, that healing can occur.

To work towards this positive outcome, we also will create immediately a more thorough editorial process for the magazine that is both thoughtful and reflective of the essential values of Haverford College.


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