Letter FROM the Editor - Apology

Balancing life is sometimes a difficult act while trudging through our years at college. At times we get lazy and make mistakes, and it is a testament to our grand institution that most of the time we get caught, at least academically.

Working for The Courier for more than three years now, I have made my fair share of mistakes, some of which have found their way into print. None of these were as embarrassing and obvious as the Sept. 14, 2007 issue of The Courier.

As most of you noticed, there were some rather obvious mistakes. In the interest of education, The Courier staff and I are going to chalk the mistakes up to pure laziness. Then we will be as bold as to say that we will never make those mistakes again.

The caption on the front page, reading: “Insert Caption Here,” was more or less a lack of meticulous editing and copy work. The blank space appearing on page two, perhaps the most noticeable of all, was a case of late nights and lazy overviews.

For those of you wondering how this mistake occurred, it was a simple matter of “text wrapping.” While editing through the paper, an article on Sam Thompson had to be brought over the top of an article on The Grounds for final editing. Thanks to a mistake made by, yours truly, the Sam Thompson article was not properly placed back onto the page.

Instead, the page, improperly assembled, was sent as a PDF to the printing company which so graciously produces our publication. Had we, or rather I, simply looked at the PDF prior to sending the page to the printer, this mistake would have been caught and fixed.

I will spare you the ramblings of all the mistakes that did appear with hope that you missed most of the rest. However, if you did find them, let us say, that it is our belief that we can and will do better.

The next step in the process may perhaps be one of the hardest apologizing to those we let down. Although many members of the student body, faculty and staff have allowed our mistake to count as part of the educational process, we, as a staff, and I, as the editor-in-chief, did indeed let you, the readers, down.

We have learned from our mistakes and hope to leave our lazy ways in the past and with the help of our often forgotten and underappreciated advisor, Tom Withenbury, we hope to learn and move on.

So, our promise to you, our readers, is that we will give our best efforts to making The Courier a positive reflection of what students at Monmouth College can do.

The Courier staff sees two uses for our great paper. First, we view The Courier as an educational tool and opportunity for students to both polish and showcase their writing, editing, designing and photographic skills.

Second, we view The Courier as a serious publication of news, features and sports. It is our hope that you, as members of our reading community and campus, will look to participate in the creation of The Courier.

With those goals and views in mind, we also hope that you, as members of our common community, are inspired to contribute and be heard through The Courier. We invite writers, designers, photographers and even editors to come and be a part of our great student newspaper.

So, with these final words, I will apologize and pledge with my staff that the remaining publications of The Courier will make you proud to call it your student newspaper.

 

Ian Van Anden
Editor-In-Chief