One semester after “The Movement” catapulted the issue of racial equality on DePauw University’s campus to the forefront, a second wave is hitting.
It all started with an email about an incident of microaggression at the Hub. Now Twitter and Facebook are erupting with comments about race, equality and the movement #DearDePauw. Yik Yak is buzzing. University President Brain Casey has publicly backed a proposal to add an “M,” or multicultural, distribution requirement, and he hosted an open forum. On Wednesday, 120 students, staff and faculty of multiple ethnicities gathered to show solidarity. A special faculty meeting has been called for next Wednesday.
As DePauw University’s student newspaper, The DePauw has a responsibility to report these events and to investigate the underlying causes of the unrest according to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics: Seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable and transparent.
As we cover the events and conversations taking place on campus, we will do our best to tell all sides of the story. Please keep in mind we cannot report what we don’t know. We understand that some students are hesitant to talk to us because of how issues have been reported in the past, but we hope to bring to light the underlying causes of the unrest on our campus so our community can move forward.
The DePauw is an independent student newspaper. Although we share a name with DePauw University, we are not beholden to the University or its administration. We are our own entity, and we make our own choices about what we print. As we publish papers in the coming weeks, we will bring you as much information as we can about what is happening on our campus, good and bad.
We hope to be a forum for the free exchange of ideas. We encourage members of the community to speak to our reporters or write letters to the editor and guest columns. Letters have a 350-word limit and columns have a 650-word limit. Both are printed in the opinions section of the paper. We edit letters for AP style and libel.
As journalists, we believe that a well-informed public is the key to social justice and the basis of democracy. We strive to be ethical journalists who provide a free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough.