Dear Argus,
As a member of the Mabuhay Planning Committee and a member of the audience, we are writing to express our disappointment and frustration at the lack of coverage of Mabuhay, the annual Asian/Asian American show, held last Saturday, April 22nd. Our opinions are in no way reflective of the whole committee/audience. The Mabuhay Planning Committee wrote to the Arts editors, requesting that the show be covered, letting them know that we would reserve two tickets for their reporter and their photographer at the door, so that they would be able to view the show for free. We were initially delighted to receive a response saying that the Argus “loves it when people make requests” and would be happy to cover the show, even requesting that their writers be allowed to “contact the people involved so he/she can get quotes and learn as much as possible about what’s going on.” Following this, a member of the committee did receive an email of questions from Isabella Vitti, who we naturally assumed was the reporter responsible for covering the event.
Naturally, we were puzzled when no such article appeared in last Friday’s Arts section, especially when events that occurred after Mabuhay, like Ebony Singers, did receive coverage. We would like to stress that we are not championing Mabuhay over other shows, and we’re happy to see the articles about the plethora of events that occur on this campus (many of which we went to support). However, we feel that by excluding Mabuhay, you have left a huge gap in your portrayal of the Arts events that happened the week before. Mabuhay is an annual tradition, one of the flagship events of the Asian/Asian American community. We are also a sold out show in Crowell EVERY YEAR, which indicates that a significant proportion of the Wesleyan population either participates or takes an interest in this event every year. Perhaps this is pompous, but we feel that such a kick-ass show, an annual tradition, deserves coverage more than once every four years.
The Argus cannot cover every event on campus; we are cognizant of that. It is a student paper, and students do not have the time to cover everything. We were excited to receive questions about it from the Argus, especially since this event has not been covered, despite the Argus being sent complimentary tickets every year, since spring 2003. We answered your questions, and then heard nothing from you. We didn’t know whether or not your reporters were coming but we still put in the effort to make sure the box office knew that the Argus was to be let into the show for free. As a paper, you gave us the impression that you would be covering the event, but in the end, you let us down.
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