A Quest for Clarity

The article “The Quest Goes Live” (Reed, March 2011) states that the Quest board’s decision to launch reedquest.org was bolstered by a referendum showing a majority of students in support. This is the complete opposite of what happened—with one or two minor exceptions, a majority of voting students (in total and from all four years individually) rejected the idea both as a whole and with respect to every given type of article. Senate and the Quest simply did not take any action in response to the vote. Also, it is not true that the Quest remained “stubbornly confined to print” for 98 years or that the Wild Wild Quest changed this fact even during last semester: various other websites have existed for brief periods in the past, and sin.reed.edu/quest/ was already up and running smoothly many months before reedquest was ever announced.

—Sam Shemitz ’11

Portland, Oregon

Editor's Note: We goofed. Only 40 percent of students supported an online Quest; 27 percent were opposed; and 27 percent neutral. This constitutes a plurality, not a majority. (Where are the poli sci majors when you need them?) We are sorry for this misstatement and for giving earlier Quest websites short shrift.