The other day I was dropping off a stack of newspapers in the admissions office in Albert Emmanuel Hall. I kindly asked the woman at the front desk where would be a good place to display the papers. To my surprise, the woman replied that her office no longer was interested in displaying Flyer News because of the effect that it may have on prospective students. Especially that particular issue, she added, because of the front page story covering the shooting that occurred on Stonemill. The woman was kind enough to thank me anyway, but wow did she tell the wrong paperboy that information.

In our policy that can be found in the bottom right corner of the opinions page, one can read that our paper ?works to serve the campus community and offer a forum for opinion.? To me, it?s more of a mission statement than a policy. We strive to provide the UD campus with relevant news and useful information, and I?ll be damned if someone thinks we should have withheld the shooting story to formulate a false image portraying our university as a fairy-tale campus where nothing ever goes wrong. I understand the admissions office?s goal: to get prospective students to choose this university. But to have the nerve to elect not to carry the student-ran campus newspaper so that prospective students can only see the side of the university that the admissions office wants them to is appalling. It?s an injustice to every prospective student who steps foot on this campus to not be exposed to our student newspaper, which is arguably a more realistic and encompassing representation of UD than the admissions office could ever offer.

In last week?s political cartoon, the cartoonist drew a box of Band-aids with President Curran on the front, explaining that the president of UD uses them as solutions for some of the problems here on campus. But when it came to solving the problem of students complaining, Kastner wrote, ?Who Cares! All that matters are those high school parents visiting. It?s all about appearance.? While I don?t necessarily believe Dr. Curran has these views, I have come to believe, through my first-hand account with the woman behind the desk in Albert Emmanuel Hall, that the admissions office does indeed believe it?s all about appearance.

As editor in chief of Flyer News, I can promise this university that nothing will be held back in order to please the administration. If the editorial board of Flyer News and I believe something should be printed, students of UD will soon be reading it in the paper. We feel it is your democratic right not just as students of UD, but as citizens of the U.S. , to be informed what is going on in everyday life by an uncensored source.

That source is our newspaper. And unlike the admissions office, we don?t cater to prospective students and parents ? we cater to the people that are already here on campus, and more importantly to the people that call UD home.