For a school of just under 2,400 students, a lot of things happen on this campus.
Students study everything from biology to women's studies. Hundreds of students participate in intercollegiate athletics, and the majority of students affiliate themselves with a greek organization. Furthermore, dozens of student organizations provide nearly limitless opportunities student engagement and leadership.
The DePauw tries to cover campus as thoroughly as possible, because our mission is to provide content relevant to those in the DePauw community. This involves a lot of sacrifice from our staff.
In addition to taking a full load of classes, staff writers often write one or more stories per issue. Photographers hustle from place to place to supplement the reporting with pictures. Editors can spend 20, 30 or even 40 hours a week tying it all together into a final package.
But with a relatively small newspaper staff, we do not always hear about events on every corner of campus. With a finite number of reporters (we're always looking for new ones) who also need to pass their classes, we have a limited amount of time. Therefore, decisions on what to cover — and inevitably, what to leave out — must be made.
We recognize our coverage does not always reflect the campus as a whole. It's no secret that The DePauw contains a lot of coverage about the greek system, as the issue is relevant to many of our readers. However, this coverage can come at the expense of other potential stories.
Our newspaper has received criticism for not covering the minority community on campus enough, and we have only scratched the surface in covering different faiths at DePauw. Many events on this campus receive minimal or no coverage, despite being very important to some members of the community.
But we continually strive to do better. Staffers frequently throw around story ideas that will appeal to different groups of people. Editors reach out to different groups of students on campus to gain their input of our coverage.
But you all have the power to shape our coverage, too. If you have any news tips, want to write a letter to the editor or simply have a concern about our coverage, we encourage you to contact us (editor@thedepauw.com). We are working to produce the best student newspaper we can, and more input from more students can only help us achieve that goal.