From the editors:
Over the course of the four months that staff writer Parker R. Conrad worked on this piece, he interviewed dozens of FDO employees, former employees and students. While D.E. Lorraine Sterritt did not use the words "saw no basis for the allegations," the experiences she described did not match charges by many former assistant deans interviewed for the story. The sidebar, which was published originally as a separate but linked story on the website, was meant to paraphrase succinctly areas of agreement between Sterritt and the two other assistant deans whose experiences in the FDO did not match the allegations.
Sterritt declined to be interviewed in person or by telephone, answering only by e-mail. Her responses were among the briefest that Conrad received from assistant deans. The story quoted the comments of others who defended or praised Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans, including former Assistant Dean Sarah B. Drummond, current Assistant Dean Philip A. Bean and Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, as well as Nathans herself.