Political views from left to right will soon merge as leaders from two prominent political papers on campus combine forces. Sophomore Ben Tramposh, editor in chief of the liberal Southpaw publication, will join forces with sophomore Michael Bowers, former editor in chief of the conservative Washington Witness to create an as-yet-unnamed nonpartisan publication that the staff of Southpaw will be folded into.
“In the past there has been some bad blood [between the publications that] has caused a lack of professionalism and caused bickering rather than a discussion of politics and ideas,” said Tramposh.
According to Tramposh, both he and Bowers get along despite their differences in political opinion.
“We’ve managed to put past issues in the background as far as leadership is concerned,” said Tramposh, which led to the idea of creating a joint publication.
“In the interest of both our publications, we started early in the year to tentatively pursue the idea of combining papers and making one campus political paper in the hopes that it would increase readership, interest and the professionalism of both of our [publications],” he said.
According to senior Jay Newman, associate editor for Southpaw, the concept of the joint publication will be to move beyond rhetoric-based politics and focus on the issues.
“The idea behind the new publication is to salvage campus political debate,” said Newman. “Better research, more news and not just straight ideology.
The new leadership is enthusiastic about their new project.
“This is a really exciting time,” said Brian Nakash, the former Witness business manager who left the paper along with Bowers to work in a similar position at the new paper. “There is a lot of interest around campus. We’ve been doing some research, and we have yet to see anything like this at any other university.”
The new publication will hold its first official meeting on Sunday, Sept. 26 to begin preliminary planning after which more information about the paper will become available. According to Bowers, the first issue should go to press within the next three weeks, before the presidential debate currently scheduled to occur at Washington University.
At a meeting of the Conservative Leadership Association (CLA) last Thursday, the Witness’s then-editor in chief Bowers asked members of the CLA-the campus political group associated with the Witness-to vote on joining with Southpaw to create one political campus paper. Under the merger, the Witness would have remained the publication of the CLA with space dedicated to Southpaw writers.
The majority of the CLA members did not express approval, and after lengthy discussions Bowers resigned as editor in chief of the publication in the interest of pursuing the new, joint paper.
According to junior Matt Arnold, president of the Witness, the group told Bowers that if he and Tramposh wanted to start an independent paper, the group didn’t think the Witness was the “right way to go to” but wished them luck in their efforts.
When asked about his reasons for leaving the Witness, Bowers said, “It was mostly a matter of divisions in the Witness. There was a split in opinion between those who wanted ideological unity and those who wanted to create a political forum.”
Since the Witness already accepts submissions from opposing viewpoints, Arnold felt that it was unnecessary to set aside space for Southpaw, adding that he wasn’t sure about “the demand for an independent political paper on campus, [which is] virtually unseen around the country.”
Although two of the Witness’ senior leaders (Bowers and Nakash) and four staff writers have left the Witness as a result of the imbroglio, Arnold is confident that his paper’s future will be secure.
“We have a wealth of staffers still with the group who are helping with the transition,” said Arnold. “The paper will go on, and we are currently working on getting our next issue out. We have been thrown back a little bit by this transition, but there will be a new issue out in the next two weeks.”
Arnold said the Witness should be back to its regular biweekly schedule shortly thereafter, and the paper is currently in the process of lining someone else up for the position of editor in chief.