Letter to the Editor: Bullet Contains Relevent Issues but Could Use Some Fact Checking

Dear Editor:

I found the Oct. 8 edition of the Bullet to be one of the more mature and relevant issues I have read in five years here at UMW. It was full of useful and reasonably well researched information about safety, academics, and campus concerns.  For this, I want to commend you.  I am still not a fan of the off color opinion pieces on sex (these could use a maturity boost), but otherwise the paper seems to be making great strides.
Nonetheless, one item might have benefited from a fact check.  In “Squirrel Sparks Power Outage,” Ruth Lovelace states that electrocution by contact with power lines is “most likely the ‘leading cause of death to squirrels in the Fredericksburg area.’”  I am not an expert on the matter, but I suspect that cars, hawks, crows, and winter may perhaps be more significant factors in squirrel mortality rates.

Charlie Sharpless
Associate Professor of Chemistry