Dear Students of UMass Boston,

It is with great sadness that I must inform you of the crime that has been committed against the students of our campus. Between finals and the week of New Years Eve, The Watermark office was broken into and all of the student submissions for the 2001-2002 publication were stolen. This means that if you, the student, had submitted anything to The Watermark before that time period it is now gone.

In stealing your work, the perpetrator also gained access to your personal information-anything you disclosed to us on your submission cover sheet such as your social security number, address, and phone number-has also been stolen.

Public safety was notified on January 3 and campus security is doing what they can to remedy the situation. This is a serious violation of personal and public property and I sympathize greatly with you all, especially those who submitted photography and other visual art. My hope is that you have ways to reproduce your work. As an artist myself I know how devastating this is.

No list of students who had submitted exists, so we have no way of contacting those people. The Watermark has implemented plans to reach out to the students who have been robbed of their time, work, and effort. Two informational meetings will occur in the Lounge on the fourth floor of Wheatley on Monday, February 4th from 2:30-3:30pm, and on Thursday the 7th from 4:00-5:00pm. We will discuss what happened, what you can do to secure your privacy, and what measures have been taken to ensure future security at The Watermark.

Also, there are fraud prevention measures that Public Safety can provide for students. For questions and concerns contact detective Keith Harrington in Public safety at 617-287-7799.

In this community of great learners, thinkers, artists, and storytellers, we have strong support campus wide and will still produce a book this spring.

I invite and encourage you to submit and re-submit your work, to feel personally gratified and to show that nothing can stop talent, effort and excellence from prevailing.

Thank You,

Sarah T. Reddick