Throughout the semester, our staff has been seeking opinion pieces from students outside our staff. As someone who thrives on hearing the stories and experiences of others, I am disappointed by how few op-eds we have received.
In the first editorial of the semester, Clara and I established that we wanted more of campus to feel included in The Weather Vane (WV). Despite our assertions, we are not receiving nearly as many as I had hoped. The lack of op-eds has left me wondering, why aren’t students interested in publishing their opinions in The WV?
Attempts to try and answer that question run through my head: social media provides people the space to share, people don’t care about sharing their opinions, writing an article is daunting, writing a piece on such a small campus is vulnerable, etc. No matter how many possible rationales I come up with, I know there is not one clear answer; sporadic speculation also does not solve the problem.
Being a staff member of The WV means that I have inherent biases pertaining to this subject: sharing ideas in the school paper is important, the community should engage in discourse in a unbiased space, and publishing opinions forces people to sit with and develop their ideas. I acknowledge that not everyone shares those values, but I believe they are important.
When students share their ideas in the paper, it allows people who are not in their typical circles the chance to encounter that perspective. Social media breeds polarization and keeps people within specific spectrums that are often similarly aligned with themselves. By publishing a piece in The WV, people go out of their typical social spheres and begin engaging with the community.
Ideally, The WV is an unbiased space. I argue that it is impossible to isolate all biases, but we try our best to eliminate as many as possible. Part of that attempt to eliminate biases means that we will publish almost any piece that we receive from a member of the community. By accepting opinions from all veins of the community, The WV can truly be a place of discourse for the community. Each of us should desire to hear the perspectives of one another because it is the only way that we can grow to create a community that honors each of its members.
Not only should we honor the perspectives of others, but we should also reflect and honor our own opinions. The ideas we have come from our unique experiences. In publishing a piece, people take the time to wrestle with how their experiences influence their beliefs and are given the chance to fully develop their beliefs. Although social media gives people a place to publish their thoughts, it has become such a commonplace thing that it does not provoke the same level of critical thought that writing an op-ed piece does. Writing a piece for a newspaper pushes people to reflect on their ideas, often in a way that they had not before.
As I write this piece, it probably sounds like a longwinded way of an editor trying to get more op-ed pieces, and, in a way, that is true. However, my main purpose is to show why it is important for our community to engage more. EMU is going through a lot of changes right now, changes that will affect its existence as a university. I know people have thoughts on past and potential changes, as well as social justice issues that are going on. Events on campus that promote discourse do create conversation and provide great spaces for people to grapple with their ideas and beliefs, but they are not enough.
Publishing in newspapers is a more concrete way to share ideas. They create a space where a person’s words are preserved. In an age that is becoming more digitized, papers have shifted to try and stay relevant. The WV has a website where we upload our articles, and some papers only have digital publications. By doing so, a greater pool of people can access the ideas shared in a paper. While that might seem scary, it is the best way for us to stay in tune not only with the ideas of our community, but with ourselves.
