Veritati: Moving Forward

Moving forward, the Editorial Board of The Colgate Maroon-News will publish a weekly editorial addressing current events, university policies, campus culture and controversies that arise throughout the year. This new column, dubbed by our staff “Veritati”, will be replacing the Editor’s Column, a column that long served as a platform for MN staff members to comment on their individual Colgate experiences. This platform, ultimately, went underused.

Newspapers, both professional and student, have a long history of opening and leading national, cultural and social dialogues with commentary from their editorial boards. The New York Times Editorial Board made waves this year by choosing to endorse not one, but two presidential candidates, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. On Harvard’s campus, The Harvard Crimson publishes daily editorials critiquing student politics, calling on changes in campus policy and reflecting on national news. 

The MN is not The New York Times, nor is it The Harvard Crimson. We highlight the work of these publications as shining examples of what newspaper editorials, especially student newspaper editorials, can and should be. Reflecting as a staff after the tumultuous events of last semester, we feel that establishing a tradition of informed editorials is a responsibility we must take on. A community that receives email notifications of racist incidents, sexual assaults, protests and speak-outs on a near weekly basis deserves a unified voice to represent it. The email sent by Dean of the Faculty Tracey Hucks regarding a racist note received by a professor could not have been a more timely reminder of why we are writing this editorial. We are tired of hearing the same conversations, complaints and ideas. The only way to move forward, to break away from the cyclical process of incidents, rumors and pain, is dialogue and memory. We think we can help with that.