To all of the readership of The Hoya,
I have had the distinct honor of serving as The Hoya’s senior opinion editor throughout this now-fading fall semester.
Two weeks ago, directing my final pages of Opinion, I edited, laid and printed a piece entitled “Strive for Better from Opinion” by columnist Saahil Rao (SFS ’27). In his final contribution of the semester, Rao departed with an argument that the Opinion section should publish pieces that are policy-oriented and tangibly actionable, decrying its recent content as entries in a “public, collaborative student diary” that centers around the authors’ emotions. He praised the past success of Opinion in its alleged glory days and urged its future leaders to “publish thoughtful solutions to the crises in our community as they arise.”
I do not disagree with the idea that it is the shared duty of contributors and leadership within the section to make Opinion’s content worth reading. I also do not disagree with the idea that more provocative, pertinent articles tend to impact student life and campus policy more directly. It feels unnecessary, however, to speculate whether we have published more or less of such content as of late. That being said, the idea that we should not be a “public, collaborative student diary” is where I take issue.
Allow me to make a brief historical comparison: In March 1969, a handful of students founded the Georgetown Voice following controversial student protests — aiming to engage with both readerships and subjects beyond the Hilltop. Alternatively, as graduate Peter Morris (CAS ’74) wrote to The Hoya in 2020, “The Hoya chose to engage the university. We didn’t belong to the city. The Hoya belonged to the students.” Morris draws a comparison: The Voice spent its efforts delivering its publication throughout the city, while The Hoya spent theirs building a better student newspaper, as “good writers and editors asked to write what they loved to write,” and “we said yes.”
Further illustrating this dichotomy, the now-Georgetown Voice’s mission statement claims in its second sentence that “we shall not limit our editorial content to campus topics. We promise to present and analyze national and local issues of concern to the student, whose concern should spread beyond the campus.” On the other hand, then-Editor-in-Chief Joseph R. Mickler, Jr. (CAS ’20) preceded the first edition of The Hoya with a message: “We lay this first edition of The Hoya at the feet of the student body, and retreat to a safe distance to observe the effects.”
I do not draw such a comparison to critique any perceived competition to The Hoya, but rather to emphasize: We cannot take for granted that The Hoya is for Georgetown and Georgetown alone. The title of “newspaper of record” was not earned because The Hoya was there first or because the administration shines favorably upon its work — it is a title that we continually earn and defend, and have done so for more than a century through a foremost commitment to the university and its students. Published Opinion pieces require writers to include a “Georgetown connection” and a “call to action” concerning the greater university community, not as a ploy to reduce submissions or to increase their relevance, but because The Hoya is meant to present Georgetown through and through. It is still laid at the feet of the student body.
The Hoya’s Opinion section does not belong to me. It does not belong to the editors who will succeed me or the editors who will succeed them. It does not belong to the board of editors or the board of directors. It belongs to the administration, the Jesuits, the graduates and most of all the students — the human lifeblood of Georgetown.
And as such, why shouldn’t The Hoya’s Opinion section be that “public, collaborative student diary”? Should it not contain our thoughts, our ambitions, our fears and our hopes to be edited, printed, dated and recalled at any given time? Opinion is not meant to represent a cabal barricaded by pedigree or a hegemony of student voices who are especially educated on the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) financial appropriations process. If anything, Opinion should present itself unashamed — it should chronicle the rumblings and the subtle chaos of Georgetown student life, the “personal, reflecting and abstract” and the myriad of viewpoints that make our campus whole. Opinion is not simply what I or the columnists make it — it is what the Georgetown community makes it, and that includes you.
The slogan of The Hoya is “Read the Paper.” But beyond just reading the paper, it falls upon us all to contribute, to join its ranks or otherwise work toward its mission (as Rao put it) of advancing and informing our community’s discourse. Opinion is, and will be, what you make of it.
All my love,
Peter Sloniewsky is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.
This article was corrected on Dec. 9, 2024. It previously mentioned that the Georgetown Voice was founded as the Village Voice, and has since been changed.