Reflections from your TSC editor

By Jeremy Herb

For two years, I've been in charge of bringing you your campus news and getting you to read this newspaper, whether it was out of interest, intrigue or even anger.

Yet in my two years as editor in chief of The Santa Clara, I've yet to write a column to the readers.

There have been several stories and issues over the past two years that I've wanted to discuss with readers, but for whatever reason, I have not done so. So I've compiled the most interesting insights I've had at the helm of this newspaper, as a "best of" sort of thing. Enjoy.

Cocaine story

Yes, the people were real. The pictures were real. Everything about that story was true -- except for the names.

For those of you who weren't here or don't remember, we published a story on student cocaine users and dealers last April. The story definitely generated a buzz that the newspaper rarely achieves, but I couldn't believe it when I heard whole classes thought the story was fiction, the pictures fake.

We are a newspaper. We don't publish fiction. Period. Yes, the names were fake, but those were real students, which just shows the truth can be stranger than fiction.

Theme party photos

We had every right to publish the pictures with students in offensive costumes last year. But we chose to blur the faces of those in the photos.

This is something we should have explained in more than two sentences, but since we didn't then, I'll do so now.

We felt that the pictures illustrated a problem on this campus, a problem that was not just tied to these few students. Had we published the faces of the students, they would have been made into scapegoats for racism at Santa Clara. By blurring the photos, people were still talking about the issue, but were discussing it in broader terms.

Should those students have been held accountable for their actions? Yes, but so should many others on this campus, as it is a problem that's widespread and still exists a year later.

Rumors

I'm sure some of you have wondered why we didn't write about the stabbing in The Bronco last year, or the shooting at a local bar. Or how the university bought The Hut. The answer is simple: These events didn't happen.

It's been amazing to see how quickly rumors spread here. If these stories did happen, we would be rushing to them, as we did this winter when there really was a knife on campus. Perhaps it's the nature of college campuses to have rumors flying, but be warned the next time you hear about a knife at a late-night event or Santa Clara buying The Hut. It may just be drunken storytelling.

Thanks for reading -- it's been a fun two years.

Jeremy Herb is editor in chief of The Santa Clara. This is his final issue.