Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Dear Alumna,

We have an important message for you. Effective January 21, 2014, we are operating under a new name and from a new website: DaisiesCanTell.com. Within the next 30 days, we will also stop using the pinesandmaples.com address in our emails to you. This will be the last message from pinesandmaples.com; expect to hear from us under DaisiesCanTell.com going forward.

On January 2, 2014, we received a letter from President Mistick alleging that we have engaged in the “unauthorized use of the name for improper purposes” and are creating confusion among those who visit our website or receive messages from us (see letter below). The letter instructs us to cease using “pinesandmaples.com,” take down all content, and transfer the domain name to the College.

We disagree with the College's objections and see the administration's demands as a clear effort to shut us down, as does our attorney.

Yes, we have taken these past few weeks to consult with legal counsel well known for their expertise in the area of intellectual property (e.g., trademarks). They have confirmed for us (quoting the attorney): “any use of Pines and Maples by [us] has been a fair use.”

Therefore, in our response to President Mistick which we sent on January 20, 2014, we state, “We have not engaged in the ‘unauthorized use of the name [Pines & Maples] for improper purposes’ … nor are we creating confusion among those who visit our website or receive messages from us.” We remind the president about our contributions to Wilson, including last year's Double It! Matching Fund, which raised nearly $82,000 for the College.

Nevertheless, we have chosen to change our name at this time because the president seems determined to pursue this legally, and we do not want to see her spend Wilson's precious financial resources on a lawsuit over the name of a website.

We cannot help but wonder about the timing of all this, coming as it does on the heels of the Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE) announcement in December that they will schedule a public hearing about the Board of Trustees' proposed changes to Wilson's Articles of Incorporation. At the time of this writing, the PDE has not approved the changes to the Articles, a step that is required by state law. The proposed revisions not only would eliminate the College for Women, they also would eliminate any mention of Wilson's faculty, and alter language about the minimum endowment the College must maintain. Despite the absence of PDE approval of Wilson's Articles, the administration has moved ahead with advertising the College as fully coeducational. We will let you know when the PDE announces the hearing date.

The Pines and Maples—now Daisies Can Tell—team promises that we will share information as we are able to gather it, and continue to raise questions we all should consider. We want you to have an accurate and complete picture of occurrences and activities at Wilson to inform any decisions you make about our alma mater.

You will find the two letters mentioned above posted on our new site, DaisiesCanTell.com. For those who would like to read the letters now, we have embedded the scanned documents below our signatures.

We remain firmly pledged to love and honor...

Reply to President Mistick Sent on January 20, 2014

Letter Received from President Mistick on January 2, 2014