You may have noticed an apology to a one “Christian Dogwood” in this newspaper, set in old English text and in the style of Beowulf. These are the demands of a fictitious person. These demands are also, for this editor, the last straw. Christian Dogwood is not a real. Don’t play Fritzellian games with me. He’s NOT REAL, and this is the last step in a precipitous fall into utter crap that has occurred in this newspaper. The Dogwood apology was printed over my objection, as opinions and editorial co-editor.
For this reason, I am resigning from The Lawrentian editorial board. I confess, I let things get out of hand.
I began the year writing a few gently satiric, generally-well-meaning pieces on Octoberfest, New Student Week, Midterm Reading Break, etc. You see, I only attacked temporal labels; never people.
Then came Mike Lee, Josh Harmon, and Jon Roberts. Each began viewing our editorial pages as a sort of joke, a canvas upon which trite literary “art” could be crudely drawn. The timing of their article submissions was so coincidental that I should have recognized their collusion.
Gradually, the trifecta—one of whom (Roberts) quit the ed board upon Mike Lee’s entrance into the editorial “game,” as it were—began to submit articles almost weekly. I should have kept my wits about me, but I was too busy putting together a newspaper to realize that the fundamental purpose of our newspaper—to inform the campus, and nurture civic engagement.
Alas, I finally realized how bad things had gotten when people came up to me saying that “Dogwood is not real” and disparaging me on forums such as Downersucks.com.
The trend towards fiction in the newspaper is too insurmountable for me to overcome. Things have gotten out of hand, and I must take some of the blame. But I came on thinking I would write about relevant LU issues. Under my mismanagement, we have become a joke, and lapsed into self-reflexive narcissism.
I still intend to write the occasional editorial as a corrective to the crap which now fills the pages, but I think I’m going to move on to an academic focus for a year or so.
But in the mean time, practice your efficacy: protest the trite crap that wastes your activity fee. Insist that The Lawrentian take itself more seriously—not too seriously, but more seriously nonetheless.
It’s been a pleasure serving the campus. I regret lots of things. I trust I shall not regret resigning. Thanks for reading.