Monday’s forum for the political candidates should be front page news. It should, in fact, be above the fold front page news, but am I right in supposing the Skiff could not justify printing such a mediocre, poorly written and researched story on the top of page one?I am not surprised at the lack of pictures – as all present at the forum can attest, the Skiff did not make an appearance. Not only did the candidates expect the Skiff to be there, it is a duty of this publication to inform the students, and the Skiff did not adequately do this.
In reading the article, I never would have suspected that there are 11 candidates running in the upcoming elections – the reporter only mentioned one. Don’t mistake me, Jason Ratigan is a worthy candidate, but I feel the Skiff did a disservice to the rest by only naming him. Furthermore, neither of the nonparticipating students interviewed in the forum even attended the whole event, and comments of both were extremely closely related. The reporter writes that “all of the candidates have different ideas but similar goals,” but does not mention a single goal.
Had the reporter been present, she would have been able to write about some of the issues that came up at the forum. She could have told the students that some of the biggest issues discussed are improving and increasing money to the Activities Funding Board (the body responsible for giving money to student organizations), increasing student awareness and involvement in SGA, and co-programming issues with Programming Council.
The reporter could have recorded some of the best questions and comments posed to the candidates. One such comment, from senior Feleceia Benton, urged candidates to continue to keep in touch with student organizations throughout their terms, not just during their campaigns.
Another question asked all candidates to clarify whether they felt it important to serve their constituents, even if doing so went against their personal opinions. Some students may have wanted to know that only two of the candidates feel it is their responsibility to represent students’ interests over their own.
The reporter could have even written that the forum took place at 11 a.m. Monday and ended around 12:45 p.m. She could have informed the student body that a presidential debate will take place at noon Thursday if they would like to know more about the five presidential candidates. She could even have gone so far as to say that elections will take place Tuesday.
The reporter could have written a good article to inform members of the student body of things that pertain to them. She could have, but she was not present, and a story about American politics, which can be found anywhere, stands where this more relevant story should have been.
The student body deserves better from its newspaper.
Tori Hutchens, junior international economics and Spanish major