As a school newspaper, we constantly look at many aspects of the University under a microscope. Every week we search campus for stories big and small that we think are important to our readers and our community. But what kind of organization would we be if we did not put ourselves under that microscope? That is why, we would like to publish the fact that The Outlook missed a major story.
The Outlook deeply regrets dropping the ball by not covering, not based on any malice on our part, but solely because we missed it, the Installation of President Patrick Leahy. An event that should have been front page above the fold, appeared nowhere in our paper. That is our mistake and we own it.
In truth, readers may not realize how difficult it is to produce this paper week in and week out. Our staff is composed of full-time students, virtually none of whom receive academic credit for their work, no one is paid, everyone has classes, some may have outside jobs, or obligations, several are athletes, and yet we all still gather in the newsroom every Monday to publish the paper.
People expect the paper to cover every single thing that happens on campus but do not understand all that goes into printing this weekly. Our reporters and staff are taking phone calls, sending emails, attending events, writing articles, editing, laying out pages, and covering multiple stories. All of this is in an effort to be fair and tell the truth. It can be difficult to accomplish this for every issue, without error.
That said, The Outlook is committed to covering the entire campus. Our ability to do so is limited. We do not know of every event, every new aspect of campus life, and every publication that happens at the University. It helps when members of the campus community can alert us, keeping in mind that we are forced to function under tight deadlines, when events of interest might be happening.
If you submit photos to us, or notify us of an event after the fact that makes it difficult for us to include your event in the newspaper. We cannot rearrange a week’s worth of preparation for a last minute inclusion. We invite all departments, faculty, and staff, to inform us of their various events, especially if you feel as though we do not cover them enough. Again, please allow us enough time to assign a staff member to the event so that the event can be covered in full. We invite you to help us make the paper the best it could be.
But truly, the reason for this editorial is not to discuss how we might better cover the campus. In fact, this editorial is being written so that we can openly own the fact that we failed to cover the president’s Inauguration on Friday, Oct. 19. While we can never make that omission completely right, we do hope that everyone turns to the centerfold section to share in some of the highlights of this very special event.
Again, we deeply apologize to President Leahy and the Monmouth Community. We are committed to doing a better job in the immediate future.
PHOTO COURTESY of Monmouth University