We at The Marquette Tribune are proud to unveil our first official editorial in 12 years. In the months and years to follow we hope to engage our readers with well-reasoned and well-informed opinions on pertinent and sometimes controversial topics on campus, in the community and throughout the world.
In order to better serve the Marquette community, we have determined that as a newspaper we will reach our decisions based upon the facts of the issue at hand, rather than applying a single ideology or philosophy that is determined beforehand. If our goal were to tow an ideological or partisan line, then our function as an editorial page would be degrading to the Tribune, condescending to our readers, and simply unnecessary for everyone involved. This is why we will be making our decisions on a strict issue-by-issue basis relying on what we feel the facts of an issue tell us. It will hopefully lead us to take positions that will fall all across the ideological spectrum, as facts are not monopolized by only one ideology.
In pursuance of forming what we feel are the best opinions on a matter, we will also be comfortable in acknowledging any mistakes that we may make. With the luxury of hindsight, we may find instances where an opinion of ours will be proven wrong — although we certainly hope this won't happen often. If mistakes happen when an issue is still pertinent, we will change our stances in a measured and reasonable way to reflect any new facts while acknowledging our past errors.
When the editorial board speaks on an issue, we may laud programs or actions taken by individuals, administer criticisms of programs or actions we feel aren't in the community's best interests, or bring to the forefront issues that we feel should be discussed on Marquette's campus by students, faculty, administrators and elected officials. The editorial board may also endorse candidates for political office, although endorsements will be few and largely based on the candidate's stance on issues that we feel specifically effect the Marquette community. Our goal is not to contribute to the noisy, ineffectual squabbling of partisan factions, but to propose or endorse solutions to some of the public dilemmas that may be encountered in our time.
It is our plan to form the majority of our opinions on issues that are directly tied to the Marquette campus or the larger local community. This is for the benefit of both the editorial board and the readers of the Tribune. However, this does not preclude us from speaking out on national and global issues that we feel are compelling.
We also wish to emphasize that we speak only for The Marquette Tribune. We fully acknowledge that we will take stances on issues that may disagree with the students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and administration of Marquette. From time to time, members of the Tribune's staff may disagree with the publicized opinions of the editorial board. We will take our stances not for the sake disagreeing with any of the above groups, but in the interest of presenting well-informed opinions for the discussion of the issues. We also welcome those who have their own opinions to either agree or disagree with us with a short letter to the editor or a full submission to our Viewpoints page.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Jan. 20 2005.
Click here to comment on this editorial on the Tribune Forum.