To the editor:

Here is a copy of a letter I just emailed to the attorney general. My hope is that by some chance, the Honorable Judge Ellis reads this and allows us to make our case.

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Dear Sir,

I recently wrote you concerning the whole debacle involving the Joan Weill purchasing of Paul Smith’s College.

I would like to go on record as stating I am deeply disappointed in your recent affirmation to disallow alumni (and now current students who want to be involved) to have a voice in the process.

We, as investors in the college experience, feel defrauded. You see, we pay into an entity in order to get a return greater than what we paid in. But in the education field, the value is so much more and unaccountable, especially when the great Paul Smith’s name and reputation was attached to our investment journey’s plan. If this goes through and the name is purchased, our investment has just tanked with the horrible reputation that is attached to it.

As attorney general, I believed you were to speak for those who couldn’t. Well, I guess I was wrong. You see, Phelps Smith didn’t have any direct heirs, as we know … so he left the property, etc., etc., so that his father’s legacy could live on in perpetuity by educating children to better themselves, as any parent wishes to have happen. By your action not to allow the alumni to have a voice, you have done Phelps a great disservice. We are his voice that is being silenced. We are what he wanted. WE ARE HIS HEIRS …

We were taught to fight the elements and other obstacles that we faced with integrity. Allowing us the voice will allow all of us the chance to see through the smoke and mirrors and lies, and get to the truth that should be what lives on, not using Paul and Phelps’ good names to try and polish a tarnished reputation.

We as a group have already found out so much. Please request our help to get to the truth and, as you yourself, sir, put it, stop the astroturfing of the Adirondacks.

Please help us defend Phelps’ last will and testament, as he wished … and as we wish to do as his descendants.

Thank you,

Matthew LaPointe

Forest Tech, ’97

Fort Ann