On Oct. 30, The Daily broke news of widespread stomach illness in Florence Moore Hall (FloMo). In our coverage, we erroneously attributed the illnesses to food poisoning; over the course of the day on Oct. 31, the University issued a press release suggesting that norovirus, a virus spread via food or surfaces, was the culprit.

As editor of this newspaper, I apologize for any inaccuracies that were published in yesterday’s publication. However, I stand behind our decision to publish the story on the 31st without comment from University officials.

The article was sourced by testimony from five students– two FloMo student staff members, two FloMo residents and one non-resident FloMo diner– attributing the illnesses to food poisoning. Importantly, they all reported that their illnesses were contracted much earlier in the week, some as early as Monday, Oct. 28. Worse still, they suggested that FloMo residents did not feel fully informed about the situation by the University.

Unaware of how Stanford administrators planned to handle the situation, we felt it was the students’ right to know that they could get sick from going to their regular lunch or dinner spot. FloMo Dining remained open to students between Oct. 29 and Oct. 31, despite over 50 students falling violently ill.

As recently as Oct. 31, University officials spurned interviews from our reporters and refused even to answer questions about what precautions were being taken to keep students safe.

In short, we made critical mistakes in our pursuit to publicize a story we felt was vital to the student interest. More effort, however, should have been made to reach out to University officials on the evening of Oct. 30, when the story was being written. It should go without saying that these kinds of inaccuracies will not occur again.

Thank you for reading,

Edward Ngai

President and editor-in-chief, Volume CCXLIV