Jonathan Hirst, the Vice-President for Communications and Public Relations in the USG, has made a few good points in his Op-Ed. It’s true that student apathy on campus is rampant with most students unaware of both the going-ons of the student government or the campus publications. And many of the student media organizations on campus have diminished their coverage of the USG, even the Statesman.
However, Mr. Hirst is mistaken if he believes that campus media have stopped coverage of the USG, period. In fact, at last week’s senate meeting the Statesman sent one editor to cover the story, but what happened at the meeting and the issues brought up were simply not newsworthy.
Most of the hour and a half-long meeting was more of an information session for the senators, with two members from the University Senate, Edward Feldman and Norman Goodman, explaining to the USG senators the roles of their organization.
In addition, another point we disagree with is his argument that “all of the media on campus, with the exception of Blackworld, seem to be on a downward spiral.” The Statesman would like to point out that Blackworld irregularly prints issues. So it seems that not only are students apathetic towards campus media, but the USG officials are barely aware of what is happening with the campus publications.
Although it is true that Mr. Hirst has been one of the more enthusiastic members who openly encourage reporters to attend meetings, he exaggerates when he claims that he has to “beg and plead” for them to go, at least those from the Statesman.
But regarding Mr. Hirst’s point about the lack of USG coverage by campus publications, the Statesman would like to apologize for our decreased coverage. It is true that increased coverage would make the USG senators more accountable for their words and actions. In the future, we will try to improve our coverage, but with only a finite number of reporters covering different issues on campus, sadly, the Statesman cannot cover as much as we would like to.
