Editor,
I am writing to you in regards to Meghan Crosby's column in The Post on April 21. She discussed how she felt about some of the biases present in today's society. The main target/subject of her column was someone who is very close to me as a person, adviser and friend. Allow me to state that Richard Harrison was not convicted of a crime for his action. I believe the case against him was based on an illegal search and seizure by the police. Just as her freedom of speech in writing this column was protected by the Constitution, his right to not be harassed by police is protected in the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution.
Harrison has worked for this university, and Phi Kappa Tau, for more than 19 years without a mark on his record. There have been countless alumni from both Ohio University as well as Phi Tau that have been touched by this man. According to the column in The Post, none of this matters. This man, who Crosby failed miserably to meet before she put her column in the paper, is a good man who made a bad mistake. His alleged crime was not one against society, i.e. rape or murder, but one on himself. She published that one gram of cocaine could count as intent to distribute. Harrison is no drug dealer, but she tried to make him appear as one.
He is an excellent philanthropist, fund-raiser, role model, and to me, a hero. You wouldn't know that if the only things you knew about him were from The Post or public records.
Allow me to quote her column for a moment: So why is Harrison still employed by Ohio University? Why is he still overseeing the development of student affairs when clearly
he cannot handle his own affairs? Before I respond, let me tell you something about myself. I transferred to OU during Winter Quarter of my freshman year. I joined Phi Tau that same quarter. After meeting Harrison, he urged me to take on a leadership role in my pledge class. I took three. I became pledge class president, vice president and social chairman. I am currently co-chair of the Student Campaign Advancement Committe with another Phi Tau from my pledge class. Co-chair is the highest undergraduate position in the committee. In addition to that, I am now the president of Interfraternity Council, as well as vice president for programming in Phi Tau.
I think that I have developed as a student, and I owe it all to the man whose reputation Crosby butchered in her article. I have a different adviser for each club that I am in, as well as a university adviser, but I only need one. Harrison is the one man I talk to when I need advice, guidance and assistance, and he has never steered me in the wrong direction. He has never told me to do anything that would hurt me, nor has he ever tried to distribute cocaine to me. This man not only gives out his office number to everyone in the fraternity, but he also gives out his home number. I have had troubles in my life when I needed to talk to him at 3 a.m. and he was not upset that I called. He never turned me away, when everyone else would. If you want to judge this man as a university official, his only wrongdoing is that he does too much.
I understand that with the information she came across when she spent one sunny lunch hour in the Athens County Court House is what she based her column on and she did not know any better. Meghan, now that I have enlightened you as to how this man really is, I am forced to judge your character based on what you will do next. Will you write a follow-up like you criticized other reporters for not doing, or will you just let the people who read your column assume that this man is a coke dealer still employed by OU?
David J. Rababy
david.rababy@ohiou.edu 17
Archives
