An article in the Oct. 21 issue of the Collegian about a United Way fund-raising event called Give It Up for Good contained several errors.
The event, which is sponsored by the United Way of Riley County and is managed by the Student United Way of Riley County, was first held in 2010 [check!]. It was not held for the first time this year.
The article, entitled “Student reduces trash, benefits charities,” referred to an award given to the United Way in May for the Give It Up for Good event, but the award was given for a different event.
The United Way of Riley County and its student organization declined to comment for this note but released a fact sheet about the Give It Up for Good program.
DeeAnn Turpin, the student who said the United Way had not started the program before this year, said she had no idea of what chaos this article brought about.
“In no way did I ever intend to discredit the work of the over 200 volunteers or the Manhattan United Way,” Turpin said in an email interview. “Please know that I agreed to do this article because I primarily wanted to increase the publicity the Give It Up for Good program on campus as well as promote the work of the Manhattan United Way, the over 200 students who helped, and my contributions to initiating this in the resident halls.”
The Collegian should have verified Turpin’s claims before publishing the article. Had editors known that her claims were not matched by the United Way, the Collegian would not have published the article.