In the past week, I have received more calls and emails about the Feb. 6 “How Safe Is Fraternity Row” article than any other this year. The feedback has been both negative and positive, and I feel it is necessary to outline the reporting, writing, editing and design processes The Flor-Ala editors followed as we pursued this story.

As a Greek student who has been to several mixers and parties at various fraternity houses and as an editor who has consistently had to stand back and examine Greek actions from a non-Greek perspective, I find the article to be 100 percent objective.

The idea for the article came about after News Editor Pace Holdbrooks, Managing Editor Blythe Steelman and I discussed the alleged sexual assault at the Phi Gamma Delta house and the vandalism crime that occurred at the Kappa Sigma house in January.

We wondered how the fraternity houses would respond to the crimes and if safety standards would be raised, but most importantly we wondered what students thought about the crimes. Through discussions with students across campus in the last week of January, we realized many were questioning the safety of the houses. With Greek Retreat commencing and several annual fraternity parties kick starting for the spring semester, we decided the article was timely and relevant to the student body.

Pace Holdbrooks selected a staff writer who produces exceptional work week after week for The Flor-Ala. The writer has no affiliations with Greek Life, has never visited a fraternity house and has no biases toward a particular group. She has worked on several prominent news stories over the past year and is known for her meticulous attention to detail and her thoroughness in her research.

Pace worked closely with the writer of the story and spoke with her after every interview she completed. Blythe, Pace and I were confident in her abilities and are very pleased with the story she produced.

Since I became editor-in-chief of The Flor-Ala last spring, I have maintained a strict policy that I will not contribute to the reporting, editing or designing of any Greek Life story that goes into the paper. Likewise, there is a strict policy no writer can take a story for a group he or she is already a member of. This is to ensure there is no conflict of interest for any story, Greek Life or otherwise.

Because the Greek organizations have several unfamiliar expressions for non-Greek students, I offer background information on phrases and acronyms so every writer of a Greek Life story will be prepared for their interviews with Greek members. You could say I am a “glossary of terms” for them.

I previously held positions as standards and risk management chairs for my sorority. I was also vice president of judicial for National Panhellenic Council and spent a semester as president of NPC before accepting this editor position. For this particular Greek Life story, I made sure the writer understood the policies fraternities have regarding judicial and risk management procedures before she began interviews.

The article was researched thoroughly, and the writer took detailed notes during each of her interviews. She worked closely with Pace to interview non-Greek and Greek students so both sides could be represented fairly and impartially.

Because I removed myself from the editing and designing of the story, Blythe then stepped in to work with the writer in the editing and design phases before the story went to print. They studied the UNA Crime Logs from the past six years for fraternity-related crimes. All these crimes are public record and can be found online.

Blythe and the writer decided to use percentage values within a bar graph to indicate the types of crimes found at the fraternity houses. They also decided to round the percentages to the nearest whole number, resulting in the extra 2 percent.

I believe it is both an objective and educational discussion on Greek procedures and non-Greek student opinion.

The article outlines Greek safety policies and procedures clearly for non-Greek students. I also believe the non-Greek student comments reveal several stereotypes many still hold about Greek housing and partying.

I hope the article will spur discussions between Greek and non-Greek students about the safety policies and procedures for each of the fraternity houses. I also hope to see more transparency between both sides so non-Greek students will continue to feel welcome and comfortable at the houses this spring.

We are a student newspaper, and we appreciate all the feedback we receive from student, faculty, staff and community readers each week. We are constantly learning how to deliver fair and balanced news, but we strive to always produce the best content possible for the UNA community.