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UVA Dean of Students Lambasts Rolling Stone Publisher for Harming Professional Reputation

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A University of Virginia (UVA) official prominently featured in Rolling Stone's "A Rape on Campus" article lashed out against the magazine's publisher in an open letter.

According to the Associated Press, Nicole P. Eramo said she was subjected to personal and professional harm for being the way she was portrayed in an article now discredited and retracted. The letter railed against Jann S. Wenner for an ineffective response.

The article told the story of a female UVA student named "Jackie" who was gang raped at a fraternity party in Sept. 2012. However, several publications pointed out a number of discrepancies after the article was releases and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism ultimately discredited it as a "journalistic failure." The Charlottesville Police also found no evidence to support Jackie's story.

"Rolling Stone has deeply damaged me both personally and professionally," Eramo wrote. "Using me as the personification of a heartless administration, the Rolling Stone article attacked my life's work."

Wenner did not fire any magazine employees in the wake of the article's retraction.

"We sincerely regret any pain we caused Dean Nicole Eramo and others affected by this story," a spokesperson for Rolling Stone told the AP.

"A Rape on Campus" was also meant to highlight the UVA administration's response to Jackie's complaint, Eramo in particular. As a dean of students at the school, she said the article is affecting her ability to work with students.

The AP learned Eramo hired a law firm that specializes in defamation, though she has not filed a lawsuit at this time. Also preparing to take legal action is UVA's chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity implicated in the article as hosting the party where Jackie said she was raped.

   Final Open Letter to Rolling Stone by timothydrichardson

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