I am a Ph.D student in the Department of Political Science, an Elliott School MA alumna and a former student of Peter Rollberg. I was very dismayed by the repeated misspellings of the names of people quoted in Thursday’s article on the unveiling of the Pushkin monument (University unveils Pushkin sculpture, Sept. 21, p. 1), especially that of the Georgetown specialist mentioned in the second paragraph. That spelling was so mangled as to prevent proper identification of the person, and showed disrespect to him. Perhaps you meant Father Dmitry Grigorieff, the Dean Emeritus of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral, who blessed the statue. Likewise in the continuation (on page 16), Professor Ryfa’s last name was misspelled. I was also disappointed that no mention was made of Foreign Minister Ivanov’s or Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott’s presence. They deserve to have been mentioned; it is not every day that the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, the First Deputy Chair of the Government of Moscow or the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State are on GW’s campus. We were very honored to have their presence. I know I was, standing only three feet away from them and glimpsing them through the mass of people who filled the little square across from Gelman Library.

In the future, please check the spelling of all names, especially of those quoted, and get all the facts of the story before running an article. Failing that, run a corrections column to correct errors found after the issue went to print. Having interviewees write down their names in the reporter’s notebook will help, also. Such attention to detail will prevent errors like these, and will boost The Hatchet’s credibility with its readers.-Rachel Dubin
political science Ph.D. student