a href=”https://www.dailyegyptian.com/contactus.html”bDE Staff Reporter/b/abrspan class=”realsmall”bDaily Egyptian/b/span

Last week, the Daily Egyptian invited both sides of negotiations to a public discussion, regardless of whether the Faculty Association goes on strike. Our intent is to offer a forum that will provide some sense to this senselessness. Only one side accepted our offer.

The Faculty Association has declined for one reason:They believe we, the Egyptian, have already chosen a side – not theirs. This simply is not true. This University is currently operating in a clear “us” v. “them” atmosphere, and while we have taken stands on particular issues, we have no vested interest in Us nor Them. We have only a stake in Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and agree or not, our opinions are based on what we believe is best for this institution.

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Lest there be any confusion on the difference between news pages and editorial pages, the Egyptian wishes to make one thing clear:We are journalists. Our news pages are as fair and balanced as we can possibly strive to make them.

Our editorial is our opinion – not the opinion of the student body, the community, the administration nor the union. To be more specific, it is the collective voice of 10 leaders in our newsroom. We are not influenced by the faculty members who reside down our hallway or the administrators who reside in Anthony Hall. To anyone who disputes this, we say show us the proof. That’s not to say that we do not have open minds. In fact, we have gone out of our way to invite both the administration and union leaders into our editorial board to present their cases. As always, we appreciate the openness.

Lately, however, something has happened that makes our stomach turn on this situation. The administration and faculty have been whispering behind one another’s backs, poking fun and interjecting less than appropriate comments any time the opportunity arises. The Egyptian, also, takes blame for some of the inappropriate comments we have allowed to be presented on our Voices and cartoon pages. We will no longer allow editorial statements that stand to make any comparison between the Holocaust and contract negotiations. In our newspaper – it stops right here.

The events of recent days have hit rock bottom.

For example, Friday the union members met for a rally during which they poked fun at Wendler’s appearance and compared him to a fascist dictator. The fact that Friday’s rally was turned into a schoolyard teasing session, reducing intellectual arguments to songs about sending Wendler back to Texas has us questioning the truth of statements about what’s best for the University. We take some of the blame on this issue, but we are putting an end to our lack of professionalism and requesting that the faculty and administration do the same.

So, we extend the invitation again. We invite both sides together as part of our search for answers. We ask for these answers in our aspiration to obtain the information we need to make informed decisions – professionally – as should be expected in an institution of higher learning.