In terms of student press freedom, The Crow’s Nest is blessed. Our student government and administrators allow us to print the paper without first reviewing our work. We are not punished for publishing anything critical. We are funded generously by SG and our budget is not withheld when we publish controversial topics.
Past administrations at SG have left a good legacy of support for us. And we’ve received the same support this year. But we’ve received some requests from SG representatives trying to bargain with us on how we write our stories. These requests, we might add, are unethical. And they stem from confusion about our role as a student newspaper.
So, just in time for the start of school, we’d like to tell you just what our role is.
A good student press serves as a watchdog on their university campus, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. And that’s exactly what we strive to be at The Crow’s Nest.
You, the student, dedicate four years of your life to a college education. You are paying thousands of dollars each semester for a quality education. In addition, you are also spending money on activity and services fees, technology fees and the student green energy fund. The university promises to use your tuition dollars wisely. Most times, they will keep their promise. But don’t you want a watchdog for the times they won’t? Reporters, as students in college and professionals in the field, monitor the actions of community leaders and hold them accountable.
We also want to keep you informed about the things happening on campus. You need to know about the good things that are happening, but shielding the bad things from you would be a disservice. That’s why we wrote about the impeachment memo this week, even if we get grief for it. Readers deserve to know both sides of any developing story and make an informed decision and opinion accordingly. We provide facts, you decide. The old adage may say, “ignorance is bliss,” but ignorance is not becoming on a college graduate. Take your time in college to get informed.
We will also tell you the good things. You should know about your peers who studied abroad in Spain, about your school sports teams and about campus life. We’ll show you how to stretch those tuition dollars beyond just going to class.
We are not, however, a service to make you excited about your attendance at USF St. Petersburg. We’re not a marketing or public relations team for administration or student organizations. We hope you are excited to be here—you chose to come here, after all. But that is not our job.
Our job is also not to run anyone through the mud just “because we can.” We aim to have a high journalistic integrity and to be fair to all parties, allowing equal opportunities for every voice in a story. We’re not out to get you- we’re out to get the truth.
Of course, a look at the modern-day media shows that journalists don’t do their jobs perfectly. And we admit that as humans, we won’t do our jobs perfectly either. That’s where you come in. You’re always welcome to send letters to the editor and opinion columns.
But you can always count on us for one service: truth.
