As one of the few non-editors of the editorial board of the Fulcrum I’d like to think that I have a slightly different vantage point on the elections. And while I appreciate someone attempting to bring more light and transparency to our electoral process, I’m concerned that this may be an means through which you may sway voters, particularly those who are unable to come to the debates and will be voting by proxy.

Take into account the fact that we as interviewers rarely find ourselves in the position to be interviewed and perhaps Travis’s hesitation came from the fact that he was uncertain about your goals with this blog.

All I ask is that you are careful with your words.

Actually, I did not call him arrogant. And there was no contradiction.
If anything, I said “I was struck by his modesty”, meaning his “reputation” was incorrect.

Also, Travis could not be editing this blog, as that would put him in a conflict of interest.

“As Executive editor, he has been as discrete as ever, earning a reputation as a loner. His attitude borders between indifference and arrogance.”

I’m just not quite sure where this reputation stems from. Over the last two years Travis has been one of the most dedicated and involved staff members at this paper. I can’t speak on his behalf, but my impression is that he views our work environment as that of a family. In fact (other than his roommate, obviously) he’s the only staff member that lives with a co-worker. I’ve seen him develop tight bonds with our volunteers and editorial board members.

Indifference and arrogance would be the last two words I would use to describe our executive editor. When I heard he was planning to run for the position of editor-in-chief I was ecstatic, because I knew he would lead with the same love of this paper that I’ve cultivated in my time here. As executive editor he thinks critically about every word that is printed, and is far from indifferent. I think his comments about the editorial board and the role of our volunteers reflect this.

I write this only because I know his decision to drop out of the EIC race was one that was not easily made, and while I appreciate Wassim’s efforts to inform U of O students of our election (on the whole, I think this blog is great), I just felt the need to weigh in on the Travis we’ve known over the last two production years.