The Fake Advice Column That Got Me in Legal Trouble

July 15, 2026 by Shawn Collins

I published four issues of a Greek life newspaper at the University of Maryland called The Greek Times, and I got a nastygram from a lawyer about content in the third issue.

It was an advice column that caused the trouble. One of the staff members, Kendra, would answer questions submitted to the newspaper. They were usually submitted by me and a couple of my friends.

But she said she received one directly to answer in the third issue, so I printed it verbatim.

The problem was that she included the phone number of someone she had a beef with, and that person contacted a lawyer after the Greek Times issue came out.

I was doing my usual routines, going to class, stopping by the IFC office, etc., and saw that there was a piece of mail for me. And not the fun kind of mail.

Uh oh, this was how I found out I had unknowingly printed another person’s phone number in the newspaper, and she apparently received harassing phone calls because of it.

So, I called Kendra up and let her know that her most recent advice column was the last one. And I sent a letter back to the lawyer to apologize.

Fortunately, that’s as far as it went. The next and final issue of the Greek Times featured a new advice columnist, my fraternity brother, Aaron Falcione (aka Ernst).

This one didn’t get me in any trouble, so that was nice. I really enjoyed putting out the newspaper, and it was helpful in my development and real-world experience with budgets, deadlines, staff management, and dealing with a lawyer.

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