UNSIGNED: The Sun is a reflection of Southwestern College

The student newspaper is not perfect, just like its campus community. But we’re trying.

The Sun is a damn good newspaper. We have arguably the most diverse college media staff in the country. We are driven to seek out the truth and share it as accurately as possible. Our alumni go on to win prestigious awards and have illustrious careers. Above all else, we are a tight-knit family.

And none of that makes us special on this campus.

Because the Sun is a reflection of Southwestern College.

Almost every class has Spanish speakers, LGBTQIA folk and students old enough to be their classmates’ parents. Every class is racially diverse. Every class has students who never had to worry about money sitting next to students who have to count pennies to make sure they can eat that night. Private school graduates sit alongside their public school counterparts and students who were homeschooled.

About 1,000 veterans attended Southwestern in each of the last three years, according to the college fact book. Disabled Student Services helps more than 1,800 students every year, most of whom have a disability that cannot be seen.

The Sun has all of that and more. We have staff members who have been homeless. We have staff members with mental illnesses. We even have staff members who spent a few nights in jail.

We do not hold their struggles against them because we all want to become better versions of ourselves. That’s why we enrolled at Southwestern in the first place.

Just like our classmates.

That is why we have a dedicated Arts section. We love celebrating our classmates’ and professors’ talent, creativity and drive. We relate with the untold hours Southwestern’s actors, singers and dancers put in behind the scenes.

It is no different than the time Jaguars spend improving themselves on the athletic fields, which is why we make an effort to cover every team in our Sports section regardless of whether they are winning championships or in last place.

We love using the Campus section to highlight programs like the Jag Kitchen, a food pantry created by the Child Development Center, Family Studies Department and ASO in 2016 to feed food-insecure students. They do not even require proof of income. They would rather see a few students take advantage of them than see a single student go hungry because they did not have the right paperwork. And we admire their generous spirit.

There is also the Transfer Center, the Counseling Center, the Writing Center – this campus has so many resources available to students and they are all tailored to their specific needs. We want to get the word out.

That is also why we fight so hard to expose hidden truths.

We report on how Southwestern spends our community’s tax money because every misused dollar is a dollar that could have funded these wonderful programs. Or it is money that could transform some of our beloved adjuncts into full-time instructors. In 2018, 73 percent of Southwestern’s faculty worked part-time.

We file public records requests and we fight back when administrators do not respond in a timely manner. We fight back if they try to claim immunity from the law.

We report on our campus police department because we want our classmates to be safe, and part of being safe is knowing which officers have histories of violence. And if an investigation clears the police of wrongdoing, we report that, too.

We all have our own reasons for joining The Sun.

Some of us grew up dreaming of Pulitzer Prizes. Some of us want to be photojournalists. Some of us want to become better writers. Some of us just want to pad our resumés, or it is just a credit we need to transfer. Some of us do not yet know what we want to do with our lives. We’re just trying to figure it out.

We are led by an idealistic advisor who believes in what journalism is supposed to be. The first lecture Professor Max gives every semester is about ethics, reporting the facts and reporting the facts responsibly. Because it is also our job to minimize harm. And because ethics apply to our everyday lives.

We will not all become ace reporters. That does not matter to him, though. We know because he gets just as excited talking about former Sunnies who become artists or musicians as he does when he tells us about former students who get nominated for major professional journalism awards. He also keeps a list of our staff members who have been accepted to four-year universities on the corner of the newsroom’s whiteboard, regardless of major.

He is special to us, and at the same time we recognize he is not that special on campus, either.

Southwestern is full of faculty who go above and beyond for their students. That is why some ASO members showed up to governing board meetings to support the faculty and administrators behind the election debacle. It is why former athletes stop by games or practice to catch up with their former coaches. It is why so many of our faculty are former Southwestern students themselves.

Not every student will become an expert in their field. But, like Professor Max, Southwestern’s coaches, professors and advisors will do everything they can to help students become something.

The Sun is not perfect. We are students. We are still learning. We have limited resources and we have to find time outside of class and work to report our stories. We are going to make mistakes, just like the people we write about and the people who read our writing.

So help us.

Tell us which campus groups are underrepresented in the paper. Tell us about students who deserve the spotlight. Tell us about rumors of wrongdoing so we can investigate. Write letters to the editor. Reach out to us on social media. Become a source.

We cannot promise anything. The information we are fed has to hold up to scrutiny. It has to be verified. It has to be newsworthy.

The one thing we can promise is that we will try. We will do everything in our power to celebrate the good that Southwestern does for the community. We will do everything in our power to shine a flashlight into the darkness.

Because we may not be special on this campus, but that is only because we believe this entire campus is special.