College at Brockport's student newspaper has students upset over Alexandra Kogut coverage

Posted at: 10/04/2012 11:10 PM | Updated at: 10/04/2012 11:18 PM
By: Lynette Adams | WHEC.com

While family and friends said goodbye on Thursday to a College at Brockport freshman who was murdered, students on campus are up in arms over the latest issue of the university's newspaper covering the story.

It has been a difficult week on the Brockport campus. Students are still trying to cope with Kogut's death... and there are still so many questions.

The student-run newspaper hoped to answer some of those questions in it's latest edition, but some students say the coverage does more harm than good.

Casey Spark is a senior at the College of Brockport. She says, "I'm especially annoyed with the Facebook status."

A specific newspaper is the talk on campus right now.

It's the College at Brockport's student run weekly, called The Stylus. The current edition is dedicated to freshman Alexandra Kogut.

But the newspaper has some students upset by it.

Casey Spark says, "I know that they say some of what you post on the internet is out there for everyone to see. But I don't think it was right to steal them right off of the webpage to use on The stylus and to plaster her face all over it was equally inappropriate... sensationalized."

Senior Casey Spark is among a number of students who say it's too soon for this. On the day Kogut is buried, the front page is filled with pictures of her and the man accused of killing her.

It shows not only pictures of Kogut and Clayton Whittemore, but reproductions of Facebook statuses. Several hundred copies of the newspaper are believed to have been stolen yesterday by angry students and thrown in the trash.

Takea Wyatt, a sophomore, says "I think we should remember her in a better way than showing information like that."

The paper covers the investigation, domestic violence and a story about Kogut and her accomplishments

Cassie Negley is the Editor In Chief of the paper. She says, "We pulled these photos, we took screen shots and looking through them and felt that it told a story and it needed to be told."

Negley says she's heard the criticism, but stands by the paper.

She says, "Someone came up to me yesterday and she realized she needed to get out of her abusive relationship... that's kind of why we did this... although that wasn't our intent."

The Stylus distributes 35,000 copies on campus and in the surrounding area. There's so much talk about the newspaper coverage of Kogut's death.

While in the student's union, alumni came by to get a copy of the paper. One had heard students talking about the paper in a local restaurant and wanted to see what it was all about.

The crime has certainly had an impact on the university and community around it.

The newspaper is student run and the faculty has no say in what goes into the edition.

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