Your turn

The Commonwealth Times has long suffered from poor quality and apathy. I realize that apathy is rampant among the VCU student body; however the student body newspaper should not be allowed to suffer from such apathy.

What are the problems with the CT? Where should I begin? From the crossword puzzle that is as pathetic as it is disproportionately large to the lack of actual reporting on events at VCU. How are we supposed to take this paper seriously when its staff cannot even get the papers on the stands before 8 a.m. classes on the days when it is published? How is it that the student newspaper that is paid for by the university fails to even cover the news that is supposed to be their niche in an already crowded media market? Is it actually a college newspaper if it doesn’t actually cover news on campus?

I have personally been to at least two prominent events, a panel discussion and a conference, where there was either no representation from the CT or representation from the CT but no coverage in the publication. The panel discussion was last week on the Iraq war where VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School had Rajiv Chandrasekaran as one of the panelists. Not only is he an excellent author, but he was also a guest on the Daily Show less than two months ago.

The conference, where I believe the CT had a photographer in attendance at the conference last semester, titled “Oil, Climate Change, and Security” and sponsored by the Sierra Club Student Coalition and Americans for Informed Democracy. However there was no actual coverage in The Commonwealth Times about this conference that drew over 150 people from throughout the state and coverage from 97.3 Richmond Indy Radio. This conference was the scene of one of the most contentious and heated panel discussions I have ever witnessed, and I was extremely disappointed that the CT did not cover this event in their paper.

Perhaps because the students at VCU have such low expectations of the CT the staff at the CT feels no qualms in barely meeting those expectations. Although I do recall hearing that VCU has one of the better programs in mass communications in the country, and yet our school paper is of such a poor quality that there are always piles of papers left over each publication. I used to think that maybe all campus newspapers are poorly run; after all they are only students running it. But after visiting and reading some other college newspapers, I can now truly appreciate how abysmal The Commonwealth Times actually is.

-Mitchell Smiley

Editor’s response:

As a loyal CT reader, I’m sure you simply overlooked our March 22 cover article (“Panel Rips into Bush, Ponders Iraq’s Future”) about the panel discussion you mention.

As for the conference last fall, with dozens of events on campus each week, we can’t get to everything. We try to pick an array of events that reflect what is happening on campus and in Richmond. The photographer in question, while an employee of the newspaper, was taking photos for the Sierra Club. Thanks for your letter.

I am writing to express my strong disapproval of the recent SGA election fraud. Jessica Lee has essentially gotten away with murder for the time being. Jessica ran a very dishonest campaign, repeatedly and intentionally broke multiple rules, and is now arrogantly flaunting her ascendancy to the executive branch.

We must not allow these five justices who are unelected and unaccountable to reward bad behavior and lawlessness with amnesty. This is also a civil rights issue: if candidates can pretty much get away with anything, then it dilutes the power of the vote, and the people have no way of keeping their leaders accountable.

In short, a Lee victory means a victory for big government and a loss for “We the People.” The student body deserves to know where their elected SGA officials stand. I, for one, am pleased to report that I will continue to stand strong for limited government, reform and for above all else, our freedom. And I vow to stand tall on behalf of VCU students as I lead the charge against aggrandizing career politicians, come what may.

-Steven C. Latimer
Senator
Monroe Park Campus