Dear University at Albany Students,

First, I want to commend you for coming together in the way that you did. You rallied around the girls who had said that they had horrendous things happen to them in the early hours of the morning on that bus. You showed support and let the perpetrators know that students were not willing to stand for such an act to happen on “our” campus or on “our watch.” It was amazing. I think that you all should be applauded in showing such compassion for one another. The rally itself was peaceful and very humbling. I was proud to consider myself a student of the University at Albany.

I am currently a student applying to graduate school at the University at Albany. I am proud to say that I have taken undergraduate classes there in past semesters and I have never had a negative experience there since I had started there in 2013. I have met some pretty amazing professors who have changed my life forever. I will forever be grateful for the experience that I have had thus far.

Despite recent events, I am still proud to call myself a University of Albany student. Personally, I feel that I always will.

Secondly, to the girls who made the false claims: I am not sure what made you do what you did, but, as you will see, your recent choices are going to have life-long consequences. I am not sure why you all felt the need to lie and make up the stories in the way that you did. You have not only affected your own lives, but ours as a student body as a whole. I am angered that you had the nerve to affect me, personally, as a student. We have such a broad range of students on campus and the campus is trying to move us all ahead as a whole unit. You all have decided to make us move us two steps back. Why did you make this choice? I feel as if I am more saddened by the potential onset of the next story, one that may be truthful but not heard or listened to because of your choices to lie. Personally, I feel betrayed that I am one of the ones who stood behind you, who believed in your story and your tearful speech, and who rallied behind you and supported you. I was sending prayers that you were all going to be OK and believing that time would heal your wounds and that the physical scars would also disappear.

I am still that student standing behind you. I am done being angry at you. If I were to see any of you on campus, I would shoot you a smile, just as I do for everyone else who I meet.

I have forgiven all of you.

I know that you three are going to need more prayers and support than you have ever needed in the past in the upcoming weeks. I pray that you have great family support and a great group of friends around you who will do the same thing in your upcoming time of need. I hope that you get through this and come out smiling again on the other side of things.

I don't care to know why you did what you all did, but I very much hope that you learned a valuable lesson from all of this. This life is all about choices and sometimes consequences need to be faced when bad choices are made. Unfortunately, this won't be priceless on your end of things, but, in the end, I hope for you all that these lessons will be life changing.

My choice is to forgive all of you and move on. I, personally, feel as though you all deserve a second chance. Forgive yourselves. Wipe the slate clean and start over fresh from here. You all deserve to give yourselves that. You can only go up from here.

The most important lesson is never make the same mistake twice.

Sincerely,

Tiffany C. Finkle