Welcome to another semester of The Weather Vane! As the new editors-in-chief, we would like to orient the community in our goals for the semester. While planning for this first issue, we thought about the variety of voices that we have on campus. Having Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, we were able to see the power of those unique perspectives coming together, from Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou’s talk at convocation to the opening of our barbershop to Nikki Giovanni’s speech at Bridgewater college. We want to continue including a spectrum of voices throughout each issue, not just this one.
In past semesters, it has been difficult to include a variety of voices on campus. During our planning meetings, we have a small group of people who come every week to decide what stories we are covering. We make a concerted effort to cover as much of campus as we can, but it is difficult for such a small group of people to find every potential story, even on a campus as small as ours.
While we appreciate the dedication that our staff writers and editors display, we are well aware that we do not cover all veins of campus. We recognize that not everyone is drawn to journalism or even writing. However, contributions can come in other forms: alerting us to important information that we might have missed; sharing opinions, respectfully, on issues ranging anywhere from national to campus-related; and reading our paper regularly.
As we seek to include more voices, we want to represent them accurately and fairly. Kirsten Beachy, The Weather Vane’s academic advisor, reminded us of the importance of truth-telling, especially in newspapers. At their best, newspapers unflinchingly portray the state of a community. The Weather Vane, Kirsten told us, should always strive for this goal: “Telling the truth better.”
We trust our community here on campus to hold us accountable as we pursue these goals of inclusion, representation, and truth-telling. However, this work is not always easy; it requires communication and patience. With that in mind, we are asking the campus to inform us when we have not met those goals. We also ask for your contributions in creating a space for all parts of EMU’s campus.
We do not want any group or person to feel that their perspective is not welcome. If you have an issue or idea that you particularly care about, you are more than welcome to share it with us!
We are instituting some changes to the paper in the hopes that we can better embody our goals. The first of these is continuing to create an appealing and relevant design. Senior Will Ewart, our design and photography editor, is continuing to flesh out stylistic choices. We welcome feedback and suggestions.
In the hopes of continuing The Weather Vane’s legacy, we are working to update our website. On our website, we have a contact section for story suggestions, corrections, or general comments. Junior Elliot Bowen, our web manager, is in the process of uploading all of the past semester’s issues. He will continue to include new content as we publish more issues. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by our lack of timeliness in digitally publishing those past issues.
As you continue to enjoy The Weather Vane this semester, please be in touch with affirmations, concerns, and questions. We are always happy to hear from this community.
You can contact us at wvane@emu.edu. If what you send us is something that you would like to have published, please indicate that in the email; we would love to receive more letters to the editors this semester.
