Update:

The Maroon-News is aware of accusations of plagiarism regarding this column. We have been discussing with the administration whether an honor code violation took place, and out of respect for that policy we cannot comment further at this time. 

The Maroon-News staff is, however, in the process of reviewing the entirety of our editorial policies and will announce changes in the coming days. We appreciate all constructive feedback. 

On 9/19/2013 the Maroon-News published an article titled “On Catfighting” by Elizabeth Marino ’16.

While all pieces published in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper or its editorial staff, the Maroon-News regrets publication of this opinion piece. 

Although we were hesitant to publish this piece, as a newspaper, we believe it is not our place to censor an individual’s opinion. We also believe that we are a forum on campus for discussion of all opinions, popular and unpopular. Our publication policy only limits articles if they target individuals or incite violence, neither of which applied to this article explicitly.

However, it is clear to us that this approach alone neglected the elements of this article that were offensive to specific groups. The article made pseudo-sociological claims without providing evidence, and at the very least, we ought to have removed these elements from the article. Not doing so was an oversight on our part.

This was clearly a mistake, and we apologize to those we have offended by allowing the publication of this opinion piece.