One of the highlights of my job at Student Life is hearing what other students think about what’s going on around campus. While that usually means reading op-eds and letters to the editor, some people make the extra effort to communicate their thoughts with me personally. Whether it’s somebody stopping me in Holmes to comment on my latest column or a Student Union official calling me at midnight to (justifiably) point out errors in an article, I take every comment seriously and use them to improve Forum.
Last semester, many people told me they don’t understand how Forum works. This unfortunately means that we’re not doing a good enough job communicating with our readers who we are and what we do. Clearly, our Forum Policies box isn’t enough (though it’s a good start). So, in the interest of transparency and to better serve our readers, I’d like to answer some of the most common questions readers ask me about Forum.
Who is on staff?
Aside from me, the senior Forum editor, we have four Forum editors, a handful of staff columnists and two page designers. Editorial cartoonists supervised by the senior Graphics editor draw the editorial cartoons and op-ed illustrations. Finally, there are several copy editors that edit Forum. All in all, then, Forum has about 15 people at any given time. The names of the editors can be found at the bottom of this page.
Forum’s chain of command is murky, since all staff except Forum editors and columnists have roles in other sections of Student Life. Ultimately, however, I’m responsible for what’s in Forum.
Not all op-eds are written by Forum staff. When the byline reads “Special to Student Life,” the author isn’t on staff.
Why wasn’t my submission published?
In consultation with the page designers, I decide on Forum’s general layout and content, like how many op-eds we will run, how much space we have for the graphics, etc. Specific people are in charge of specific things when it comes to selecting content.
Three of the four Forum editors are each responsible for all the op-eds that run on a given day of the week: Justin Ward handles Monday; Dan Milstein edits for Wednesday; and Brian Schroeder is the Friday editor.
The two most common reasons op-eds aren’t published are: the issue has been beaten to death, and there’s no new insight (Israel and abortion frequently fall under this category); or, there are libel/defamation concerns. Also, the amount of articles we can print is limited by space. In case of a space conflict, we perform a balancing act on what to run using flexible and imprecise rules. We prefer timely op-eds-those that are relevant now and may not be tomorrow. Staff writers also get priority. And while we publish anything of interest to students, we prefer op-eds on student issues. Lastly, the better written and more insightful the op-ed, the more enthusiastic we are about it.
I screen letters to the editor, which are more likely than op-eds to run immediately. They’re less of a space commitment, and they’re the primary way readers can respond to op-eds and editorials previously published.
Finally, the Senior Graphics Editor oversees cartoons and illustrations. The day’s Forum editor, however, determines which op-ed gets illustrated. Aaron Seligman, the fourth Forum editor, frequently produces other graphical elements on the page, like “Just the Facts” and “Opposables.” We have no explicit standards on submissions of these graphical elements, so you should direct any questions about them to Seligman.
In no circumstance do we exclude a submission because of the author’s beliefs or arguments, no matter how unpopular her expressed opinions may be. Forum exists to spread and discuss ideas, not censor them.
Why was my submission edited?
We edit all submissions (including our own!) for conformance to Associated Press style and grammar. There are also a few Forum style rules, like referencing any article which a submission responds to. In rare instances, we cut parts of op-eds and letters due to space concerns.
We don’t normally edit content, the main exception being occasionally rewording phrases for clarity. If there is a defamatory or factually incorrect statement, we’ll remove that after notifying the author of our concerns. Editors may suggest to the author that she make certain changes in organization or content, but such suggestions have to be approved by the author before we run the submission.
Who wrote such-and-such editorial?
When it comes to staff editorials, there is no one author. The editorial board (E-board) meets at least once a week to discuss and select editorial ideas. Topics are selected by plurality vote, since we sometimes have up to 20 on the table, but then we determine our position on the issues by majority vote. For a given topic, one person will write the editorial summarizing E-board’s views and arguments; after it’s written, the writer will circulate the text to the other members for their review and edits. In my nearly two years on E-board, I can’t remember ever running an editorial when any member of E-board objected to it, in whole or in part, even if they disagreed with the position.
In all honesty, I do the write-up of E-board’s opinion about twice a week and Aaron Seligman usually handles the week’s remaining editorial. But many other members of E-board have written staff editorials, including the editor-in-chief. One reason we don’t identify the technical author is because s/he may not agree with the opinion, which really belongs to the editorial board. More importantly, if we identified the author, the editorial would lose its force as being the opinion of the paper.
Who is on E-board?
As the senior Forum editor, I lead E-board meetings and select E-board members. The size of E-board varies considerably from year to year, from 15+ three years ago to seven last year to 10 this year. Traditionally, E-board includes the Forum editors, the editor-in-chief, the associate editor and the Senior News Editor. Besides them, I chose experienced Student Life staff that can substantially contribute to editorial discussions. Currently, that means Molly Antos, a former Forum and News editor and current Staff Columnist, and Rachel Streitfeld, a senior reporter and News editor.
Diversity is important within E-board, because otherwise we’d parrot each other’s thoughts without having constructive debate. E-board includes a Hispanic, a libertarian, a Green, political moderates, two fraternity members, a homosexual, and a twice-elected Student Union officer. If you’re into conspiracy theory, though, you might want to note that E-board is half Jewish.
I hope that this helps to demystify Forum. While all of Student Life exists to serve the student body, Forum is unique in that it’s a place for readers to directly engage the editors and other readers with their opinions, and I encourage everyone to do just that.
If you have any more questions or thoughts about Forum, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. I love getting reader mail, be it an op-ed, a letter to the editor, or a simple comment.