The GUSA Legislative Assembly passed a resolution Wednesday night urging the editors of The Georgetown Academy to apologize for what the Assembly deemed to be “insulting, slanderous and racist comments” in the off-campus student publication’s March issue.

The resolution, which passed by a 14-2 vote, said that the Academy “crossed the line of journalistic integrity, civility, good judgment, basic decency and acceptable behavior,” in its Attic Salts feature, which appears regularly in the monthly publication.

In a statement released last night, Academy Publisher Eric Wright (COL ’01) and Editor in Chief Robert Swope (COL ’01) defended the Attic Salts as satirical, intended to stimulate debate and criticize public officials.

“The comparisons were mere devices of analogy and nothing more, used to draw out a point,” the statement said.

The statement also said that the Academy had apologized in two cases “where we made an error under our own standards.” Wright declined to comment beyond the content of the statement, which did not indicate to whom the Academy apologized.

Attic Salts have previously been accompanied by an editor’s note that described the articles as satirical in nature. The editor’s note did not run in this issue, and Wright would not say whether it was the result of an editorial decision.

The resolution and ensuing controversy centers around several allegedly fictitious quotes attributed to Georgetown students.

“I never spoke to them,” said Andrew Katz (COL ’01), to whom quotes were attributed in two articles that claimed members of a specific religious group were in charge of the Student Activities Commission and Students Against the Yard.

In other articles, GUSA alleges that quotes were manufactured to criticize the Georgetown Voice, Vice President for Student Affairs Juan C. Gonzalez and several other campus groups. In all, allegedly false quotes were attributed to 15 students, including SAC Chair Terry Platchek (COL ’01), Latin American Student Association President Alfredo Toro (SFS ’03), Director of Student Programs Martha Swanson and GUSA representative Aaron Kass (COL ’02).

The resolution was sponsored by Senior Representative Jamal Epps (COL ’01), Junior Representative and Vice-President-elect Brian Walsh (COL ’02) and Kass.

“As the voice of the student body, I felt it was the student association’s responsibility to speak out against acts of intolerance and bigotry,” Epps said.

“No one should have any problem with people speaking their mind,” said Kass, who was allegedly misrepresented in the articles, said. “But I think this went too far … this went way over the line.”

Debate about the resolution at Wednesday’s special meeting of the GUSA Assembly focused on the appropriateness of the resolution.

“I don’t want us to be too emotional in our reaction,” GUSA President Tawan Davis (COL ’01) said. “But I agree with [the resolution] … they made false quotes and false accusations without indicating that it was satirical.”

Because the Academy is an independent publication not officially associated with the university, the Media Board, which oversees campus publications, has no official authority over it and cannot pursue sanctions against it as some suggested at the meeting.

Aaron Polkey (COL ’02), who was also named in the Attic Salts, suggested that students could confront The Academy’s advertisers if they find the articles offensive.

Davis suggested that the Media Board schedule a meeting between representatives of both GUSA and the Academy to air concerns between the two groups.