Dear Editor:

I feel I must respond to Joseph Yancey’s letter to the editor in Tuesday’s paper. I think it is interesting that Yancey, a friend of Picchietti and co-founder of Fight Club with Picchietti, felt the need to write in to rebuttal a letter from a student on Friday. The student wrote in her opinion, simply as a student, where as Yancey writes in as a friend of Picchietti. Obviously, this is a campaign move.

Yancey claims that Allison Gegenheimer is close-minded and uninformed. I think that that is interesting considering her letter was strictly about the events that occurred at the USG debate. Most close-minded people would not attend the debate to try and hear out all candidates before making their decision of whom they would like to represent their student views as USG president.

Mr. Yancey states “so what?” to Picchietti’s unprofessional actions of wearing red boxing gloves during the debate and mugging for the camera. What I have to say to that is I would be embarrassed as an SIUC student to have Picchietti represent the undergraduates here at SIUC. USG handles half a million student dollars and represents more than 16,000 undergraduate students. SIUC is not the Canadian Parliament; however, I would hope that he would represent all the undergraduates in the most professional matter at all times, especially at a professional debate.

Whoever is elected as the next USG president, I hope they represent the undergraduate student body to the highest of standards.

Jessica L. Graff junior studying plant and soil science