Staff editorials represent the consensus view of the MU Student News editorial board.
At the start of every publication year, this board asks itself a question that deserves a public answer: in a school where announcements arrive by email and everyone’s phone knows everything, why publish a student newspaper at all?
Our answer is that announcements tell you what was decided. Journalism tells you how, and by whom, and what the people affected think, and what happens next when the plan meets reality. This term alone, the difference was visible: the attendance-policy story was not the policy PDF — it was a room full of disagreement about it. The club-funding story was not the new rubric — it was the years of complaints that produced it and the clubs still unconvinced.
We publish because a community that only hears official versions of itself is poorer for it, and because the skills this newsroom teaches — asking, checking, writing plainly, correcting openly — are not school skills. They are citizenship skills, practised early.
So here is what you should demand of us. Accuracy first: when we get something wrong, our corrections policy is public and we use it. Fairness: anyone criticised in these pages gets asked for their side before publication, every time. Independence: our coverage decisions are made by students, and our adviser will confirm she learns what we’re covering when you do. And clear labels: this text is opinion and says so at the top; our news pages carry none of our views, and if you catch some there, tell us — loudly.
The form on the Submit a Story page is the most important page on this site. This paper is only as good as what the MU community brings to it. Bring us something.
One more commitment, while we have your attention: this year the board will publish a short annual accounting of ourselves — corrections issued, complaints received and their outcomes, and where our coverage was thinnest. Newspapers ask institutions to account for themselves in public; the request lands better from a publication willing to go first.
