After the printing of our Feb. 15 editorial "The Student moves to reclaim the founding principles of its creation," we received some helpful and much-needed critical response. We welcome the feedback, and we recognize that clarification is needed on our part. We hope that the explanation below helps to elucidate our goals.
When The Amherst Student was founded in 1868, it was inarguably independent from the College and alone in reporting the College's news. Its founders' mission was to create a newspaper for students, about students and by students-a publication free from financial or content-related obligations to the College's administration. Nearly 140 years later, the current editorial board retains those original aims, but we feel they have been unintentionally undermined by developments from the recent past.
Today the College has the ability to report its own news through the Office of Public Affairs (OPA) and the Sports Information Department (SID). From their inception, these two organizations' Web sites alerted the world to news on and about the campus 24 hours a day. As a result, our own publication could no longer offer its readers breaking news. Over time The Student's coverage grew increasingly dependent upon the content of the College's Web site; the College's press releases tended to dictate The Student's selection of news stories. That predilection led to a pair of unfortunate by-products: a less interesting newspaper and a lessening of The Student's invaluable independence.
The former is largely self-explanatory, for if The Student simply covers those stories that already appear on the OPA and SID Web sites, the significance of the newspaper diminishes. Certainly, The Student provides more detailed coverage, but our mission should go beyond simply elaborating on the College's press releases. We feel we must consciously undertake to report the news from, and for, the student body's perspective.
As for the latter consequence, let us make clear that by a "lessening of independence," we do not mean to imply that our predecessors in any manner colluded with the College, or attempted to avoid tension with the administration. Rather, The Student's practice of reporting on the College's presorted, predetermined news stories indirectly reduced the publication's autonomy. We do not suggest that the administration has a great deal to hide, but The Student is the only autonomous outlet on campus, and we must not shirk the responsibility that comes with this position.
Our independence is about more than our finances, and it should not be reductively equated with the ability to fearlessly criticize the administration. While both these aspects are certainly important to this publication's identity on campus, The Student's autonomy should manifest itself most significantly in its unfiltered coverage, bold reporting and student-oriented vision. It is our goal to provide this campus with the independent news source it deserves.