Controversies may come and go, but it's the most unexpected ones that last.
Three years ago, Kelly Tsaltas' opinion column titled "Come on ladies (and gentlemen), we can do better" divided the student population.Commenting on their fashion choices, the opinion piece prompted some of the most impassioned responses in The Plainsman history.
Tsaltas included her critical opinion of how sorority women and fraternity men dressed on campus.
"I thought that it would be a funny blurb that, maybe, would make people laugh," said Tsaltas, senior in psychology. "I went home and opened up my computer and got on Facebook and had 100 friend requests, 200 messages and 90 notifications and I was like 'Jesus Christ, what have I done.'"
Despite Tsaltas' humor, and the acknowledged freedom writing a column provides, many in the Greek community took to the internet to express their dissatisfaction, resulting in more than 100,000 page views in within 24 hours.
Comments on Tsalta's article were disabled approximately the day after the comments turned to personal threats and personal attacks, some including Tsaltas' home address.
"People didn't understand that it was a column, its just my opinion and columns are places where you can talk about any issue that you please, " Tsaltas said. "Political columnists talk about things that are way more controversial than Nike shorts."
Responses to the column became increasingly negative until The Plainsman staff felt forced to respond, and explained in an editorial that while the freedom of speech is shared by all, the right to attack someone in writing online is not.
"It's one thing to disagree with her personal views on any topic," said Rod Guadjaro, 2010 editor-in-chief of The Plainsman. "But when you disagree with her, and then go beyond to threaten her or her parents' lives over her opinion on something, that's where we drew the line and decided to write something that explained our view on it."
Jake Sciotto, Auburn alumnus, boasted in a letter to the editor that he received a job after responding to Tsaltas' column.
Sciotto said he agrees with Tsaltas' statements, now, and understands her reasoning in the article.
"In retrospect, I think she was definitely ahead of the curve on social commentary," Sciotto said. "Around three years ago was when the big T-shirt and leggings look got really big, and I think today it's more of a joke to everyone rather than something worth having a heated debate on."
Tsaltas left The Plainsman shortly after her column's publication because of personal differences with the staff, and decided to change her major and career path altogether.
These days, Tsaltas said she rarely gets asked if she's the author of "Come on ladies (and gentlemen) we can do better," but still encounters the occasional rumor surrounding the infamous Plainsman article.
"A myth about (the article) is I wrote it because I was a bitter girl who rushed and didn't get a bid," Tsaltas said. "I didn't rush, it wasn't for me, and I'm not bitter about that either."
Below is the link to Tsaltas's original column.
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