Last Tuesday, THE HOYA published its annual April Fools’ joke issue. Two days later, at least 40 students – including leaders of campus minority groups – participated in a sit-in protest in THE HOYA’s office to express their anger with the issue’s content. Sometime between Tuesday and Thursday night, the leadership of THE HOYA realized that the issue had gone too far.
In many ways, this year’s April Fools’ issue was no different than those that preceded it – it was uniformly tasteless, disrespectful and ruthlessly satirical. But this year’s iteration crossed the line. In more than one of the issue’s gags, THE HOYA traded witty satire for shock value and lighthearted observational comedy for brash insensitivity.
Now, we’re paying the price. Town hall meetings have been held, student government resolutions have been drafted and other media have begun to cover the matter. To the membership of THE HOYA, it’s clearer than ever that the issue offended a large, diverse portion of our community and that a number of the community’s concerns are valid.
For the second time in as many school years, Georgetown’s newspaper of record has alienated its readers. (In the fall of 2007, some questioned THE HOYA’s limited coverage of an on-campus protest related to the Jena Six.) Regardless of the specifics of these crises, it seems that THE HOYA and, by extension, Georgetown, have a problem.
Despite the years of hard work done by minority groups on campus, a fundamental lack of understanding of minority issues persists on the Hilltop. Only through the development of dialogue and the implementation of concrete remedial measures can this sort of incident be averted in the future.
THE HOYA must commit itself to becoming more aware of minority voices on campus, and – in one way or another – more representative of them. This will entail a continuation of THE HOYA’s ongoing re-evaluation of its organizational workings and its role in the community, as well as the introduction of specific initiatives to promote greater diversity and awareness on its staff. (Circulating ideas include proactive recruitment of staffers more representative of the community, diversity training and institutionalized feedback by representatives of minority groups on campus.)
No progress can be made, however, without the participation of the groups that were offended by the April Fools’ issue. The protesters should be commended for their thoughtful, effective expression of disapproval over the past several days; for real progress to be made, however, more overt communication must take place. The town hall meeting held last Thursday was closed to the press, the sit-in protest was largely silent and, at this writing, no viewpoints or letters have been submitted to THE HOYA by members of Georgetown’s minority communities since the protest. There is a time for silent objection – that time is past.
THE HOYA has specifically sought to recruit minority staff members in the past; these initiatives have been unsuccessful, thanks to a lack of commitment on the staff’s part and a lack of interest among minority groups. THE HOYA is willing to work more actively to change the climate and culture of its newsroom, and to reach out to and attempt to better understand, represent and recruit members of our minority communities. The effort, however, must not be made to turned backs. If we truly want to effect change, the burden is too great for THE HOYA to shoulder alone. If the community wants a more representative newspaper of record, then its participation will be required in the dialogue and solutions that will hopefully result.
The first step is face-to-face dialogue. We encourage all who are interested to attend the forum that THE HOYA will lead Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. in White-Gravenor 201A and share ideas of how to move forward.
THE HOYA is committed to reconciliation and long-term change; we understand that THE HOYA must never again alienate the Georgetown community in the way it did last week. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid another instance without the contributions of the community – the answer is to rely on you.
Editor’s note: This editorial was written by the editorial board, a group of three HOYA staff members and two at-large members of the community that write the editorials that appear on the left side of page A2 in each issue. It does not necessarily represent the views of THE HOYA’s staff or board of directors.
To send a letter to the editor on a recent campus issue or Hoya story or a viewpoint on any topic, contact opinionthehoya.com. Letters should not exceed 300 words, and viewpoints should be between 600 to 800 words.
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