Nassau Weekly future in doubt as editorial staff resigns en masse

Editor's Note: This article was withdrawn due to later developments. See "'Nass' obscured staff turmoil with deceit" for details.

At a rancorous Nassau Weekly staff meeting yesterday, a dispute about an article some staff members deemed offensive led to the resignation of the majority of the staff, leaving the future of the publication in doubt.

"There is no Nassau Weekly," Alex Rosenfeld '03 said after the meeting.

"Basically everyone resigned," business manager Clay Bavor '05 said. "There's no paper."

The mass departure was sparked by an article about the University's 10 most beautiful female undergraduates. Conceived by two of the three editors-in chief, Rosenfeld and Adam Nemett '03, it was scheduled to run in the magazine's May 9 issue.

But many staff members said the underlying reason for the resignations was a fundamental disagreement about the direction of the magazine.

"We've been clashing about certain things all year, about the misogynist tone," said editor-in-chief Ari Samsky. "Is it going to be a dirty magazine or a clean magazine? Certain fiction pieces I thought were smutty and not worthwhile."

Many staff members, including Samsky, opposed the top ten list from the beginning. But Rosenfeld and Nemett said they were committed to running the article with or without their staff, even if it meant raising money on their own and publishing under a different title.

"We really believe in doing this," Rosenfeld said. "The two of us have been dragged through the mud so much that we feel the gauntlet's been thrown down and we have to go ahead with it."

Initially it appeared that the two editors had reached an agreement with dissenting staff members at a meeting last week, when they decided to include counterpoint articles.

The compromise came in response to an e-mail sent by Nassau Weekly layout editor Kristina Witt '03 in which she criticized the inflexibility of the editors and asked for submissions from those who opposed the top ten list.

Rosenfeld and Nemett promptly asked for Witt's resignation.

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Though they agreed to include dissenting opinion in the same issue, they refused to change the tone of the piece, Witt said.

"Alex definitely acknowledged my objections but specifically said, 'Even if this article hurts a certain section of the community, it doesn't deter my desire to do it,' " Witt said.

Samsky sided with Witt.

"[Rosenfeld] wasn't willing to compromise about how he wrote his article," Samsky said. "He was really adamant. He wanted it to be something you'd find in Maxim."

Literary editor Katy Niner '03 and publisher Louisa Alexander '03 were among the first to leave the magazine, resigning earlier this the week.

Alexander said she remained fundamentally opposed to the top 10 list.

"I don't think our campus needs any more concrete examples of female reduction and female stereotyping," said Alexander and Niner.

Nemett and Rosenfeld invited those who had resigned to yesterday's meeting in the hopes that they would rejoin the staff.

But things soon turned ugly.

"They accused us of being P.C. thugs trying to ruin their fun," Samsky said of his coeditors, Rosenfeld and Nemett. "They were basically trying to make our concerns and complaints look petty while swearing at us."

"Time flies when you're yelling your head off," Clay Bavor '05, adding that he left after 90 minutes. "People totally lost their heads. It was pretty insane. Basically, there's no more Nassau."

Since the current editors took control of the Nassau Weekly in January, staff members have expressed concern over content they deemed to be sexist and said they would prefer the magazine to focus on investigations.

The newspaper's content has been influenced by the composition of the staff, Alexander said. This year, almost all the editors were men. Last year, the majority of editorial positions were held by women.

Though there was little female representation at Nassau Weekly meetings this year, many staff members said the debate about the top 10 list did not fall strictly along gender lines.

Bavor was one of many staff members who opposed the article.

"I can't see how this would be good for people suffering from an eating disorder," he said.

But Rosenfeld and Nemett argued their project has evolved. They conceived the article as a piece of entertainment, then decided to examine the controversies surrounding beauty, they said.

"At a certain level, we understand where the opposition is coming from, but because there seems to be so much to talk about, it seems even more reason to write the article if people are getting this excited about it," Nemett said.

"We're very much a school that strives for excellence," Rosenfeld said. "We're so quick to reward athletics or academic achievements, but it seems hypocritical that we're so reluctant to acknowledge girls for their beauty."

All sides agreed, however, that it would be difficult — if not impossible — for the staff to work together again.

"I don't think that there's any chance of the current staff reuniting," Samsky said. "It's possible that we could all meet and agree that we would like to hand it to a totally new staff so that the institution can survive."

(With reporting by Sophia Hollander.)