Article “SAO Clubs React to New Office Spaces” (September 23, 2009)

In last week’s issue of he Journal, you ran the article entitled “SAO Clubs React to New Office Spaces,” written by Shoshana Akins. We, the editorial board of The Video Gamers Army, were very upset to have seen our opinions placed into the wrong context. Prior to the release of that issue, our secretary Fatima Litim as well as a few other regular members, were asked for their takes on the new club spaces.

In the article, Fatima was quoted as saying, “we prefer our old space because now no one knows we are here and we’re basically hidden.” This was taken out of context and misquoted. Fatima’s original implications were that in comparison to our old gaming space, which was out in the open where anyone could look in and join a game, our new space is situated in a more isolated and narrow place, where people are less likely to walk by, thus the “hidden” comment. The same applies to the following quote by Eder Bastos: “It’s like we’re in a dungeon.”

In addition to misquoting two of our members – one of them being a member of the E-Board – the writer of this article also got our organization name wrong (we are the Video Gamers ARMY, not the Video Gamers Association) and spelled Eder’s last name wrong. Overall, we feel that this article does not reflect the views of the club as a whole. We are grateful to the Student Activities Office for granting us any space of our own on such a crowded floor where space is valuable. We are also grateful for the flatscreen television, game cabinets, consoles and games we have been able to acquire over the past few years. The Video Gamers Army is a relatively new club, having only been around for four years. We may not have the same privileges and membership as other larger, more established clubs. We may not be “prominent,” but we do have a positive presence on campus. We would appreciate being recognized for the good that we bring rather than being misquoted and misunderstood.

Sincerely,

Tiffany Hassin
Fatima Litim
Ramsay Kamal
Bryant Castellanos

VGA 2009-2010