Opinion
Student Voice works for your information
May 7, 2009
Working for a paper, I’ve witnessed a large amount of ridiculousness. Although sometimes ridiculousness can turn into a mess, sometimes it adds to things of betterness.
Every Wednesday night our little family of at least 11 puts this thing that you’re reading together: the paper. Your very own campus newspaper. What comes with a paper is responsibility.
Reporters turning in stories, editors puzzle-piecing pages together, photographers selecting photos and proofreaders making sure those annoying little mistakes aren’t made. And, of course, there’s your responsibility: to read the paper—to be informed by stories and to check out the blotter and disagree with the columnists’ opinions and to say something about it.
Sometimes you’ve gotten so upset by a single opinion that you write us a letter telling us what you think. Sometimes you print off your opinion on 500 plus sheets of paper and stack ‘em around campus (which, by the way, helped us out on scratch paper shortage).
And sometimes you don’t do anything at all but tell people what you feel. And that’s fine. The point is, you react. The point of our campus newspaper is to inform you to react, giving you a vehicle to react through.
The press reports on campus happenings: Senate meetings, current events, administration issues. Its the press’ job to let the public know what’s up—even down to the police blotter.
People can argue what’s news and what isn’t, but you probably wouldn’t value the news until it isn’t offered to you anymore.
I often overhear editors discussing stories: is it prominent enough? Is it well written? Does it deserve to show up on page one? We’re an ever-changing staff with a life-expectancy of four to five years.
We begin as inexperienced and end with the knowledge of our mistakes. The Voice may never be perfect; and we don’t expect to. But as far as I know, we’re trying.
We appreciate your feedback. We value your opinion. We thrive on your support. It is our job to keep you informed—without you, we really have no purpose.
Abby Maliszewski is a student at UW-River Falls.