As the school year comes to an end, we wanted to look back and reflect on the previous editorials we have published. We believe the student voice is very important. As student journalists, we value the opportunity to share our opinions freely with the campus population through editorials that are supported by data and observation. The editorial part of the publication is an outlet that allows us free expression, in addition to our deep commitment to objective journalism paramount to the Grand Valley Lanthorn.
With multiple members of the Lanthorn Editorial Board graduating at the end of the month, we are immensely proud of the work published this year.
The opportunity to address issues that were important to us, and in turn may also be important to our peers, is the cornerstone of student journalism. To celebrate the work we have done this year, we wanted to take a look back at some of our favorite editorials and share what they mean to us.
When writing an editorial story as a team, it is important to keep in mind that our opinions do not speak for the entire student body. We use our position as editors of a student publication to speak on issues that we feel motivated to draw attention to. Our position as the editorial board at the Grand Valley Lanthorn gives us a platform to communally, as a staff, uplift commentary on current events and issues.
The editorial board collectively agreed that our most recent article, “Out of touch and out of our pockets: CAB’s spring concert disappointment,” represented many core principles of opinion pieces and was a worthy topic to discuss. We thought this story highlighted our voice particularly well. We were disappointed with the spring concert headlining artist, especially following the success of the previous headliner T-Pain. While we had hoped the headliner would be a more relevant artist to the student community, we can recognize the hard work and effort that goes into hosting the event. We agreed to critique campus events and explain what we feel future events could look like at GVSU.
We also discussed topics of national importance. We were very proud of our “Elections and expirations: how old is too old to hold office?” editorial because it demonstrated our ability to think creatively about a solution to a problem. In this article, we shared what we thought setting age limits for candidates could look like in the frame of American politics. We felt it was important to express our displeasure with the choices in the upcoming election because we represent the future generation of leaders in America.
We further discussed the topic of political reform with our editorial about the need for third-party representation in the upcoming presidential election. As college-age voters, we wanted to highlight the impact and confinement in an election where choice feels obsolete. This issue had renewed attention when Hillary Clinton made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she told voters who are upset about another Trump-Biden presidential election to “get over yourself.”
Much like the changing landscape of politics, journalism is also in a state of flux. An editorial titled “The possible death of Sports Illustrated is a sign of bigger issues in journalism” brought forward our concerns about rising issues in news media. We felt the need to draw attention to major corporations buying up and turning local newspapers into shells of themselves for profit. This article also addressed how legacy media like Sports Illustrated are facing collapse, and how the push and pull of these concepts has brought about our concerns regarding the future of an industry that is vital to the American population. While we have the stability and support of a student publication, this story offered us another chance to raise concerns about the field of work that many of us are going into after graduation.
Overall, we are proud of the variety of editorial topics that allowed readers to get a glimpse of what is going on in our heads. Through sharing our feelings, readers can see themselves in our views, find moments to initiate counter opinions and initiate discourse at GVSU.
We want to express our immense gratitude to the student body for engaging with and reading our stories each week. Without readers who engage both positively and negatively with our work, writing editorials would lose some of the value and enjoyment that we find in it.
