HSA Article Distorted Facts

To the Editors of The Crimson:

As President of Harvard Students Agencies, Inc., I write to you in response to your February 5th front-page story "HSA's Let's Go Guides Spin Off As For-Profit Co." The Crimson's portrayal of HSA, Inc., composed by Joe Matthews '95, is rife with inaccuracies and distortions which pervert the innocent incorporation of Let's Go, Inc.

Let's correct a few simple facts.

1. HSA is not composed of 11 agencies as your article stated. The establishment of Let's Go Inc. reduced the number of agencies from 10 to eight.

2. There are not 20 guides in the Let's Go series. There are 15.

3. Let's Go Publishing's profits are not doled out to the "students managers" in bonus checks. The truth is that if HSA paid wages to over 1,200 Harvard students in nonmanagement positions last year.

While pointing out these errors may seem fault-finding, I feel that Matthews' inability to gather even simple facts is indicative of the quality of the rest of his story.

I am angered by the unscrupulous charge that Let's Go Inc.'s incorporation was motivated by "potential violations of state tax codes." HSA, Inc. has never violated any tax codes, HSA, Inc. is currently not violating any tax codes. And HSA, Inc. does not foresee itself violating any tax codes.

I also object to Matthews' misuse of statements made by a "former HSA board member" who spoke "on condition of anonymity."

Why did Matthews not explain that his "informant," former HSA President Robert D. Frost '92, spoke on condition of anonymity "simply because [his] term as President has ended and [he is] no longer affiliated with HSA"? Frost was not trying to imply, as Matthews did, that HSA was undertaking a covert operation.

It is obvious that Matthews did not pursue this story in the true spirit of inquiry. Instead, he fabricated a controversy where none exists.

And The Crimson, with its overzealous commitment to be the first to inform the public, abandoned the jounalist's fundamental obligation to report the truth. Brain A. Goler   President, Fiscal Year 1993 HSA, Inc.