Yesterday, at Weimer Hall, home of the College of Journalism and Communications, 268 copies of the Alligator were taken from bins and thrown away.
From eyewitness accounts and official Unite sources, we have reason to believe that Jason Tiemeier, the Senate president pro tempore and campaign volunteer for the Unite Party, was responsible for these actions.
Witnesses have also indicated that he did not act alone.
Tiemeier and all those involved should be ashamed of themselves for their reliance on dirty and classless political tactics.
This goes beyond the SG election and shows the true character of these members of the Unite Party.
More than 50 people put in countless hours every day putting together this paper for you, the Student Body. We also have career staff members whose paychecks rely on advertising revenue from businesses that expect their ads to be seen each day.
To take a stack of papers and trash them for no reason other than petty political games is beyond irresponsible.
These actions are an affront to our work, the free flow of information on campus, the businesses that support us and the First Amendment.
Ignorance is not an excuse at this point.
We expect a written apology from Unite and its campaign managers for not closely following actors within its campaign. Tiemeier should be removed from his office immediately.
This should not be happening at any level of government, and especially not on a college campus where unrestricted discussion and open-mindedness are encouraged. We should all treat each other with respect despite our disagreements.
The Alligator has been completely fair in its news coverage of the election, and it does not deserve these sort of attacks from either side.
We have also been diligent in publishing letters from supporters of both parties.
Obviously, the endorsement by head football coach Will Muschamp on Monday's front page seemed to give the Unite Party a lot of political reasons to stop students from reading the Alligator, but we do not want to make broad, sweeping assumptions about the entire party.
This could have been one or two individuals acting alone.
We do, however, want to ask that anyone involved in this step forward, be an adult and admit that this move was completely stupid.
We're pissed off, but we'll get over it.
Above all else, we feel the Student Body deserves an apology from these individuals who betrayed its trust and tried to manipulate this election.
Let us hope this is the end of dirty campaign tactics for this election.
