OUR TAKE: Read the newspaper, then encourage others to do the same
The Veritas News is a student newspaper. While any good student newspaper should aim to inform students, faculty, and staff about what’s going on at the college, it’s also a learning experience for hopeful journalists.
A few years ago, the Veritas News made mistakes. There were instances when some stories shouldn’t have been published, others where words were misspelled in headlines, and some people were misquoted.
The Veritas staff still regrets these mistakes, but it’s important to recognize that mistakes happen at a student newspaper and we aren’t the same newspaper we were three years ago, much less last year. When you make a mistake at a student newspaper, you learn from it; in most cases, this is the first place many journalists will learn how to deal with mistakes.
There are people on this campus that don’t read the newspaper or don’t want to be interviewed for the newspaper because of a bad encounter or experience in the past. While we are still not the New York Times or USA Today, the quality and reputation of the Veritas News is increasing by the day.
If the last print version of the Veritas News that you picked up was from 2009, 2010, or 2011, we plea that you pick up a print issue from this year.
If you aren’t willing to be interviewed by the newspaper anymore, we ask that you give our reporters another chance.
Our editors, reporters, and writers cannot improve if they aren’t given opportunities to succeed. Not everything will always be 100 percent perfect, but we aim to be as perfect as we can be each time we report, write, and edit a story, place a story in the layout, and publish it.
You—as a student—fund the Veritas News. Some of your student fees go toward our budget. If you don’t pick up a copy of a print newspaper or read it here online, you’re wasting your money. It shouldn’t feel like a responsibility that you need to fill, though; you should want to read your student newspaper.
As the Veritas News improves, we hope to continue to become a respected source of information on this campus. There are certain things that happen on campus that you will only find out about if you read the Veritas. You won’t find out where your student fees go by word of mouth, but you can find out by reading the Veritas (look for that story in a future issue).
Now, you probably think, “You’re preaching to the choir!” Yes, if you’re reading this, you’re already taking part in what we’re asking you to do. However, everyone reading this knows someone that doesn’t ever or regularly read the Veritas News. You can encourage them to read the paper to find out what’s going on around campus and where their money is going. You can encourage them to get involved and to interact with the newspaper. Tell them to send Quick Hits, let them know they can send in opinion pieces, etc.
We want to be the voice of students, but we need student interaction to do this. The newspaper is a safe zone for you to voice your opinion, be bold, and get involved.
You can do your part by reading the print issues when they come out, coming back to our site every Monday for new issues, and encouraging others to read the newspaper.