In the previous issue of The Lawrentian, an editorial was published that chastised the “corruption” of the intramural basketball league under the “regime” of Josh Locks. The associate op/ed editor and I initially decided to disallow its publication in the editorials section. Our decision, however, was reversed by the Editor in Chief of The Lawrentian. My initial decision not to publish this material was based on my belief that the editorials page of The Lawrentian is not the place to lodge one’s personal vendetta against another student. I stand by my initial decision.The pages of The Lawrentian ought not to be a place where personal wars are waged against individual students. Although I would maintain that we ought to be critical of those students who negatively impact our educational or social well-being on this campus, we ought not to publicly single out those students by submitting poorly written treatises about them to The Lawrentian. This behavior is juvenile and asinine, and I would hope, going forward, that this publication strictly refuses to publish such submissions.
That said, I am allowing the publication of Mr. Locks’ response in this week’s Lawrentian, as I feel he should have the right to respond to something so personally disparaging. Again, going forward, I would hope that both the Editor in Chief and future Opinions/Editorials Editors refuse to publish this type of article in the first place. My intention is not to single out any members of the Editorial Board; it is, rather, to reveal my own individual stance on the publication of the aforementioned editorial and encourage a higher standard to be set for the publication of future editorials.
I would whole-heartedly consider and welcome any objections to my feeling about what the nature of this publication – specifically the Opinion/Editorial section – ought to be. Further, I would encourage the submission of any editorials that raise legitimate concerns and/or objections about campus affairs.