Our Word

To be a college student and a news journalist is an extraordinary combination. To report daily on the university you attend should be a rewarding and fulfilling position. As Daily Egyptian employees, we have the distinct privilege of being an impartial voice for the faculty, students and community by reporting with fairness, balance and accuracy.  We won’t always succeed. But we hold ourselves to that standard.

We are the students of this university. We are the journalists of this university. We are not the public relations arm of

this university.

A journalist’s job is to report the facts, regardless of the light in which they cast its subject. This university is our main subject.

Unlike many college newspapers, we survive on advertising revenue, not student fees or a budget from the administration. We cannot be silenced by an administrator hitting the “delete” key on a budget line.

Our journalists aren’t gossip writers. Our photojournalists aren’t paparazzi. We do not relish in the negativity surrounding this campus. We don’t celebrate brawls between students and authority or rejoice in the disagreements between university unions and the administration. Declining enrollment doesn’t make us happy. We care about this university, its students, staff and faculty. We all have a stake in SIU’s success.

That’s why it is vital for us to not hold back news from our readers for the sake of promoting the university’s image. Our job is to shine a light on the community we cover. If police use tear gas at a party attended by several hundred students we’re going to say so. It’s better for all that we do.

Could our image be upgraded if university spent as much time addressing the cause of these issues rather than attempting the cover up the consequences?

We are a diverse staff of students, with different cultural backgrounds, political positions and societal views. Rarely do we agree on everything, but at no time do we let those ideologies influence our work. It is in our moral code to report the news without bias and it would be supportive if our university, where we receive the fundamentals on journalism ethics and objectivity, would do the same.