The public often needs a refresher on journalistic responsibilities.

Our job as the independent student newspaper of Oswego State is to accurately and fairly report on all things that occur on campus and in the city of Oswego during our time of publication. That is not a transient process.

We are not a public relations department. We are a newspaper. We strive to report the facts objectively. Reporting on negative events comes with the territory. We do not change direct quotations to alter the content of the story. We do not exist to glorify students, faculty or staff.

We are here to inform our readers on the facts, good or bad. Of course, there are many times when articles we publish are positive in nature. They tell the stories of the latest milestone achieved by a student-athlete, events being offered on campus or the newest change on campus that students may like or dislike. It is our job, however, when the situation arises, to make sure we are covering events and incidents people may not want to see printed.

We are put in a tight spot as student journalists to report on the highs and lows regarding other students who are our peers, as well as faculty and the different departments on campus. If we are actively trying to pursue journalism as a career, we would be doing ourselves a disservice by only reporting the positive events that occur in our community.

We are here to report the truth. Like many professional journalism organizations, we follow guidelines that come from the Society of Professional Journalists. The SPJ Code of Ethics hangs in our office to remind us to always seek truth and report it. Students that have taken a course with Arvind Diddi at any point know he has hammered home “to seek the truth and report it” time and time again.

No student, faculty or staff member is exempt from negative reporting. Regardless of whether the person is high up the chain or not, if it is something that should be reported on, we will objectively write to inform our readers.