A lot has happened with The Daily Helmsman since you've been gone. With the fall semester came four new top editors: Managing Editor Christopher Whitten, Design Editor Amanda Mitchell, Sports Editor Bryan Heater and me, the Editor-in-Chief.
When we learned we had gotten the positions last semester, we immediately began thinking about how we could improve the paper. Amanda and Chris spearheaded the efforts of our redesign. We've hired new photographers to cover more sports and campus life, and we trained a new reporting staff.
We worked all summer and couldn't wait for August to get here so we could really get started. Unfortunately, in the midst of all of this a committee of administrators, faculty, staff and students cut the funding that covers much of our printing and distribution costs, funds that make the paper free to students.
With a 33 percent cut in funds we had few options: cut back on staff or print fewer days. Either option meant we weren't going to be able to cover as much on campus as we'd planned. Neither of those were an option we were happy with.
We soon learned that the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee's decision to give us $25,000 less than we have historically received was retaliation. Two committee members - the former Student Government Association president and vice president - were outspokenly angry that we didn't write a story about one of the SGA's events last semester.
They said they should be getting free advertisement through our articles and want the paper to publish press releases submitted and written by organizations.
Apparently, they need a lesson in journalism. The editorial you are reading now is clearly labeled "Opinion" at the top, because we believe it is important to let readers know when we are stating our opinions.
The rest of the paper has labels such as "Campus Life" or "National" and the articles in those sections present facts for you to take and form an educated opinion of your own.
Our goal is not to promote any one group or another, including the University of Memphis. Nor is it to make the University look bad. A few of those who play a role in setting the paper's funding cut have told me that the Helmsman needs to help them "put the University on a regional map" and promote more school spirit on campus.
That's not our job.
As a student I like the University, and am proud when I wear my Tiger Blue, but as a journalist, I'm here to make sure the paper reports on all of the news. Some of the committee members would have us run public relations pieces and be a tool for the University to get out good things about it and never report on any of its mishaps.
If I'm not mistaken, there is already a public relations office for that. The University doesn't need the Helmsman to be a PR newsletter, and don't worry, we won't be.
We are here to tell the truth. Sometimes that truth is good news such as Up 'til Dawn raising a record-breaking amount of funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. But at other times, the truth is that a registered sex offender was pretending to be a student and living in a campus dorm last semester before he was arrested and accused of raping a student in that dorm room.
Our job as the independent student newspaper is to tell students what is going on, how their money is being spent, what new eatery is on campus and how our football team did in their first game of the season.
Since I've been a part of the paper - I'm going on my third year now - we've tried our best to produce a quality publication. We've had some mess-ups, but we've also provided the campus community with information they didn't get from anywhere else - not local media and certainly not our tight-lipped administration.
All of that is at stake now. Now that the paper's funding has been cut because some people were mad that our purpose is not to solely cover their favorite organizations and news they think is "good," there is no way for us to ensure the paper won't suffer financially if we report the next rape that happens on campus instead of an SGA event.
We have demanded the University not only restore our funding for this year, but find a different funding method for the paper. I'm hopeful that will happen soon when the University is finished with its investigation, scheduled to wrap up this week.
While I'm editor-in-chief, I won't let anything get in the way of this paper's commitment to you - students, professors, faculty, staff, administrators and anyone else who reads this paper and supports a free, uncensored press.
I'm standing up and fighting to keep timely, valuable information coming your way. I'll continue to do that for you all. Now, I'm asking you to do the same. If you want to keep benefiting from the Daily Helmsman, speak up and support us.
