The Eagle staff speaks for itself, no one else

Last week The Eagle staff wrote an editorial endorsing Sen. Joe Biden for president.

In so doing, we assumed that an editorial written under the label “As We See It” would be understood by readers to mean that we, the student editorial staff, crafted that piece.

Journalism 101 – Never. Assume. Anything.

Our Biden endorsement triggered several unhappy reader responses. 

That did not surprise us. 

But two things did surprise us:

1. With one exception, the negative responses were sent to CSC President Randy Rhine, not us.

2. Those who complained to Rhine somehow believed that The Eagle is a public relations publication distributed by the college.

It is not. 

So let us be clear: The Eagle student staff speaks for itself, no one else, including and especially the college. Opinions expressed in editorials or individual student columns belong to the student authors, not the college.  

Item No. 2 puzzled us. 

In fact, we were so puzzled that we decided to examine how it was possible for readers, who have been exposed to The Eagle for the past 100 years, could conclude we are anything but a student newspaper. 

We examined our newspaper and discovered two possibilities that might contribute to reader confusion.

The first possibility was our front page slogan, which, until today, read: “The voice of Chadron State College since 1920.”

That slogan first appeared in The Eagle’s inaugural edition of the spring term, January 2004. We interpreted it to mean the voice of CSC students since 1920. We inherited it and kept it.  

But since the word “students” is not in the slogan, we can see how some readers might interpret it to mean the voice of the college as a whole since 1920. 

We addressed that issue this week and the student staff voted Tuesday to change our slogan to read: “Giving voice to Chadron State College students since 1920.” 

Second, while we publish an opinion disclaimer for guest columns and letters-to-the-editor at the bottom of our masthead (the staff box to the left of this editorial), we have not published, until today, an opinions disclaimer for editorials or individual columns written by our student staff.

As noted, that disclaimer appears today, and will remain a permanent part of our masthead. 

In addition to adjusting our front page slogan and clarifying our masthead, the student staff decided now would be a good time to clearly and precisely explain what and who we are, and what and who we are not.

The Eagle is a student newspaper, published by CSC students for CSC students and the larger campus and Chadron communities.

We are not a public relations newsletter, pamphlet, brochure, leaflet, flyer or any other public relations publication produced by CSC’s College Relations office. 

Unless otherwise attributed, each article, photograph and page layout in The Eagle is created by full-time students who serve as the editorial staff. We have a faculty adviser who’s role is just that, advisory. We student editors make ALL decisions related to The Eagle’s editorial coverage.

Participation on The Eagle is open to all CSC students regardless of their major.

 We enjoy all of the rights and privileges granted by the First Amendment. Those rights and privileges bear great responsibility and we take that responsibility seriously.

We read. We research. We think. We draw our own conclusions. 

No one at CSC – not administrators, faculty, or other employees – indoctrinates us to any political or other belief. 

We are not grade school, middle school or high school students. 

We are college students – young adults whose parents taught us to think for ourselves.

We have opinions about the world in which we live and we will express those opinions in our opinion section. We respect the rights of readers to disagree with us and to criticize us. In fact, we encourage readers to respond to us, positively or negatively. 

We are not “snowflakes” popularized through social media.

We can take the heat. 

But if readers do respond to our opinions we respectfully ask that they address those criticisms or other complaints to us, not college officials.  

In addition to attending classes, studying and fulfilling our duties at The Eagle, most of us hold part-time jobs. The money we earn is spent on goods and services purchased from local Chadron merchants. That means we pay income and sales taxes. 

Therefore, in addition to being students, we are taxpayers.  And we are voters.  

Consequently, not only are we not politically indoctrinated by the college, we are not politically indoctrinated by talking-head political pundits found on cable television media programs such as Fox News, CNN or MSNBC. 

When we digest political information,  we research candidate and make our own decisions. 

That is exactly what we did when we collectively decided to endorse Sen. Joe Biden for president. 

It is exactly what The Eagle staff did when it decided to endorse Donald Trump in 2016.

No one complained then.