COLUMN: We want to publish all voices, but you have to help us help you
With thousands of students on campus, it's hard for us to account for everyone's opinion.
Each week, twice a week, we try to fill one full page of our print edition with columns, letters to the editor or even an editorial cartoon submitted to us by either a member of our Opinion Desk or the campus and community. Problem is, it's usually Opinion Desk columnists who dominate the page.
We don't get much variation. We'd like to change that.
Last semester, our former Opinion Editor made an effort to reach out to a number of Registered Student Organizations across campus to get them to write columns or letters to the editor regarding issues they felt passionate about. They were gung-ho about it. Who doesn't love to have a platform provided to them to voice their ideas?
There's only one caveat: we need your name in order to publish it.
Think of it this way — would you want someone to have the ability to publicly criticize you on a platform that's distributed throughout the community and reaches thousands of readers online? We don't like that idea either.
If you want to have your ideals highlighted in our Opinion section — no matter what they are — then we can publish them. But at the end of the day, that's what they are: your ideas.
Without the ability to hold a writer accountable, then the column or letter comes off as disingenuous. Worse, it comes off as someone with a vendetta.
Everyday our opinion staff makes sure that we put our names and faces on things that we write about, even when we get lambasted. That comes with the territory of being a journalist or publishing your work — not everyone is going to agree with your ideas.
But if it's worth saying, then it should be worth putting your face on.
CM Life loves to make itself available for students. We are run by students, who spend their time making sure their fellow classmates are as educated as possible about the campus and community around them.
So write for us — make your voice heard.
Our first all staff meeting of the semester is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17 in Moore Hall, room 436. Come meet our staff and those who work with us. Come with ideas and opinions, ready to be worked on with our Opinion Desk staff and edited.
If you can't make that time, then email your work to: opinion@cm-life.com
We don't change the message you're trying to convey, only make sure it adheres to the AP style that most major news organizations follow. Other than those small confines, the rest is up to you.
We want to give you the canvas to ink your message. Now you have to own it.
