Recently, I have heard complaints that The Weekly censors the voices and views of some students. An accusation like this seriously concerns us, and I want to address the issue of censorship and our editorial decisions. Even though Gustavus is a private college, the administration has been extremely supportive of the rights of student media. Outlined in the College's Statement of Student Rights, the administration encourages a free student press, where all final editorial decisions are made by the students running the newspaper. Neither our adviser nor any other member of the administration sees the newspaper before the students do on Friday mornings.
Censorship is clearly different than editorial discretion.
In the various sections of our newspaper, we want to cover as many campus events, topics, issues and voices as possible with the available staffing, funding, and space in the newspaper. We consider these goals each week as we determine newsworthiness. The entire staff, but particularly the editors, must judge the newsworthiness of each potential article. This prevents The Weekly from becoming just a newsletter of campus organizations and individuals. Newsworthi-ness is subjective, but it is our job and right as staff at The Weekly to carefully determine it.