Openness, honesty key to successful communication

Consider this editorial more of a conversation between TJ’s staff and you.

We’re big fans of you Winthrop students.

We’re especially fond of your opinions and input on campus issues and events. And that’s why The Johnsonian needs your help; if you think there’s something important happening on campus and we’re not covering it, let us know. The goal of this newspaper is to distribute information to students and we strive to report all the relevant and necessary points on Winthrop’s campus.

But we can’t do it all, so we need you to inform us of anything newsworthy. We’re completely open to suggestion and criticism as well.

If you disagree with something we report or a column we run, that’s good. It’s good to have an opinion and occasionally be offended, because that provokes thought.

The purpose of a college education, other than job training, is learning how to think critically and form concise, logical arguments.

And we give you a platform to express and publish those arguments. This semester has provided an increase in letters-to-the-editor, for which we are excited and thankful.

We encourage you to write to us. Be frank. We might publish or we might not, but we’ll always read them and respond.

Promise.

Keeping with our theme of “openness,” we would also like to share with you, our dear readers, the way we operate; specifically our structure, how we are financed and why we remain “uncensored” on a plethora of topics.

By structure we mean the authority behind our decisions.  

When we talk about finances, we are talking about where staff salaries come from and how we raise our printing costs.

When we talk about running opinion uncensored, we want to explain the process we undergo before running a column.

So, want to know who decides what to run? We will tell you. Want to know where our funding comes from? We will tell you--all unfiltered, completely uncensored. 

Why?

We are, after all, Winthrop’s student newspaper, and part of our job is educating the masses rather then keeping things aloof. Look for this information over the following week.

So let’s take the step forward and engage in interesting, provocative, thought-provoking discussions. 

We promise to do our part, always researching, always asking questions, always being open. 

We hope you will continue to do your part, continue to share your thoughts and opinions, and most importantly continue to challenge us to produce the best product we can.