Acorn

Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Desiree Hykes

As the editor in chief of The Acorn, there are few better feelings than the one I get when I walk into the Commons on a Saturday afternoon and see the faces of Drew University students buried in newsprint.

Or when I'm delivering the paper and a student or professor stops me to take a copy straight off the still-bound bundle. Love it or hate it, The Acorn has a presence on Drew's campus, and its staff knows that-and as a result works to make each issue count.

You may just skim through it. Maybe you read the movie reviews and check to see what Stephen Yellin has to say this week. Perhaps you turn to page 15 for a few laughs with Chris Shepherd. You might just read the sports section to see what that persistent reporter actually ended up writing about your team-and whether or not you were quoted correctly.

Whatever the reason, you open The Acorn each week. I think that's a pretty safe assumption, given your current occupation, no?

You might hate The Acorn. You might enjoy it-I don't think 'love' is ever an appropriate word for a newspaper. And the folks on the Acorn staff-the editors, writers, photographers, artists, cartoonists-they all have their reasons for working to put out a paper each week. In the next few inches, I'd like to share some of mine.

The Acorn's reporters and editors find out what's going on in the less-public spheres of the University and want to share it with the rest of the Drew community.

There are countless aspects of the way in which the University functions that greatly affect students, but these things aren't always on a student's radar.

Yes, budget articles aren't the most interesting pieces of reading material, but it's subjects like the budget-things that students in general aren't being asked about-that they have a right to know about.

I'm sure most students don't have time to drop in on Mead Hall once a week to see what's going on-where their money's being spent, what they can expect from Drew in their time remaining here-but we do.

And we want you to know what we're finding out. Acorn staff members and reporters can probably recite the names and titles of administrators and faculty members like most Drewids can name the cast of "Lost" or the Giants' starting lineup. And we know you'd rather spend your memory on the latter, so let us do the former for you.

Some students know what their place in the Drew community means, what they are entitled to and for what they are responsible to keep The Forest a vibrant and functional place. Too many do not. One of The Acorn's biggest missions is to make sure that the student body is informed and to encourage it to act. If a student's rights are violated, groups such as the Student Government Association hold the responsibility of taking action.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools