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Harvard Students' Show Makes Light Of Yale Killing

CAMBRIDGE (AP) -- A comedy-news show run by Harvard University students was criticized Wednesday for a video that makes light of last year's murder of a Yale University graduate student.

"On Harvard Time" released "Why Did I Choose Yale?" on Tuesday, ahead of this weekend's annual Yale-Harvard football game.

The spoof of a Yale admissions office video refers to Annie Le's killing when a prospective student asks a student tour guide, "What happened to that girl that got murdered and stuffed in a wall?" The tour guide quickly changes the subject.

The 24-year-old Le's body was found behind a research lab wall in 2009. A former technician at the lab, Raymond Clark III, has pleaded not guilty to killing Le, of Placerville, Calif.

In an editorial Wednesday, the Yale Daily News said the video's creators "crossed a line" and were guilty of "gross insensitivity." The editorial said students at both schools enjoy the rivalry's traditional back-and-forth, "but to poke fun at real suffering is inexcusable."

"On Harvard Time" said it expected to release a statement later.

"For many in our community, last year's sorrow is still fresh," the Yale editorial read. "Whether they were Annie's friends and family, her co-workers, her fellow students or the countless others who mourned her, even though they didn't know her, her death lingers in our campus' collective consciousness.

"The fact that the video's makers used this tragedy as part of an effort to boost Harvard pride before Saturday's game makes the reference all the more insensitive."

A Yale spokesman said the two schools don't comment on each other's students. A Harvard spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

(© Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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