Honestly, I’ve never really been much of a leader. In high school, I was the attentive but tuned out one — with my earbuds in and music on, I always felt alright. I was the one in studio art class who preferred to stay quiet and do my work (again, probably with the earbuds in). I was the one in photography class who silently focused on figuring out that Photoshop technique, perfectly content in my little corner, instead of making random chit-chat with the people sitting next to me. But I guess things change, because when I started working in The Stute at the very beginning of my college experience, I knew I would want to have a leadership position of some sort.
It feels like it was just yesterday that I was a freshman gushing to my parents about how excited I was to be running for my first leadership position. It was February 2019, and I was planning to run for Layout Editor on the E-board of The Stute. I remember my parents came to visit me on campus one weekend, and I broke the news to them while out for dinner. I explained how I had to write a speech and go through an election process, and I remember saying to them, “I could work my way up to be Editor in Chief someday, you know.”
Having seen and observed The Stute through the leadership of three different Editors, it’s an understatement to say I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen The Stute in three different offices, pumping content out during a malware attack, during a pandemic, during times when the print issue had to be pulled, during times of intense backlash from administrators and students… you name it, I’ve probably seen it. And while you as a reader may have seen The Stute during some of these times as well, you’ve only seen it through that very small microscope-like perspective. Whether you’re a student, an administrator, a professor, or President Farvardin, you can’t say you’ve seen The Stute from the perspective of a member unless you’ve actually contributed some amount of change toward The Stute. As a reader, a member, a contributor, a writer, and Editor in Chief of The Stute, I can say for sure that I’ve seen The Stute from every perspective possible.
I understand when administrators are put on edge when they hear we’ll be reporting on a controversial event that happened on campus. I understand when students get angry at us when we publish something they disagree with. I understand when students use their Instagram stories to voice their opinions over us. Because the fact is that most of the time, readers have absolutely no idea how The Stute operates. You have no idea how we make decisions, how we deal with reporting on controversial events, how we decide which pieces to promote on social media, our website take-down policy, and more. And that’s a problem.
While I wanted my first editorial to be an introduction, I also wanted it to be a bit of an explanation, or at the very least a glimpse into how The Stute functions. My first order of business as the newly-elected Editor in Chief was to update our policies to reflect a goal of mine, which is to increase transparency between The Stute and readers. What was previously our “Policies” has been updated to be our “Purpose, Values, Policies, and Practices.” The full document can be found here, but I’ve put a (very condensed) summary below. I hope that this change, as well as other initiatives I hope to follow through with during my time as Editor, can rebuild some of the trust The Stute has lost with its readers. At The Stute, we work for students. Our priority and our primary goal is to be a voice for students, to serve students, and to serve the community. And while I understand it might not always feel that way, just know that it’s true.
Purpose
The purpose of The Stute is to advance the knowledge and practices of journalism by producing a newspaper and maintaining a website. The physical and digital paper shall inform and influence the student body and act as a medium for student expression so as to further evoke and foster the true spirit of Stevens.
Values
While we aim to follow the The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, the following list is our own list of values that is heavily based on those elements, but has been edited to fit The Stute.
1. Our first obligation is to the truth — our first priority is to establish what truly happened before rushing to get the information out there.
2. Our first loyalty is to the community we serve — in specific, students of Stevens Institute of Technology.
3. We follow a discipline of verification. This means that we make every effort to verify with our writers that quotes are in the correct form and context, that information hasn’t been rearranged, and that every effort is being made to portray the truth.
4. We maintain an independence from administration, and we avoid conflicts of interest at all times.
5. We serve as a monitor of power, and aim to uncover wrongdoing within the Stevens community.
6. We aim to provide a forum for public criticism and compromise. The Stute Executive Board is open at all times to discuss with readers their concerns or questions.
7. We strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
8. We strive to present the news in a way that is comprehensive and proportional.
9. We strive to create community by uplifting underrepresented voices and highlighting all aspects of the Stevens experience.
10. The Stute is composed fully of students, from staff writers to Editors — we value the notion that citizens have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news as well. Our job as news reporters differs from our job as students, and we value that fine line in our levels of professionalism.
Policies (full list here)
• Opinion columns: All opinions and editorials published in The Stute reflect the views of the respective writer and do not reflect the views of The Stute as an organization or any others involved in making The Stute. If factual information is included in an Opinion column, it will be fact-checked by Editors. Writers who choose to include factual data or information in opinion writing are required to have links to sources in the online versions. Columnists are appointed after emailing a sample column to eboard@thestute.com and a majority rule vote by the Executive Board confirms their appointance. At any time after a columnist is appointed, the Executive Board reserves the right to terminate a columnist from their position, for reasons such as not meeting expectations or requirements, or other rational justifications.
• Censorship / take down policy: The Stute Executive Board reserves the right to censor a piece at any time and will contact the writer and discuss the situation with them directly. However, The Stute reserves the right to censor a piece before discussing it with the writer, if the situation permits. The Stute aims to censor pieces as little as possible and it is considered a last resort.
Practices (full list here)
• Objectivity: The Stute prides itself in being an “objective news outlet.” However, even as journalists, we can never be perfectly objective or without bias; instead, we follow the definition of objectivity as it is outlined in The Elements of Journalism which is the idea of “objectivity of method.” Objectivity of method includes but is not limited to (1) making an active effort in reaching out to all parties involved in a news story for information and comment, (2) prioritizing the presentation of the truth in all news pieces, and (3) creating an equal distribution in how we promote pieces on our social media profiles.
• Conduct: The Stute requires its staff members to behave in a professional manner and adhere to industry-standard guidelines for reporting. We aim to follow the Society for Professional Journalists code of ethics as a baseline, and in doing so The Stute seeks to serve as a news outlet that finds the truth and reports on it.
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