What is “here”?

Welcome to the Argosy!

Since 1872, we have served as Mount Allison’s independent student newspaper. This year we have decided to steer the paper in a new direction.

With the excitement of new and returning students beginning their courses and activities, it is hard not to be hopeful about what the year could bring. We can look forward to engaging lectures and discussions, art shows and cultural events, and everything else in between.

Illustration by Jeff Mann
Illustration by Jeff Mann

These opportunities are not only what make this community special, but also what make it easy to overlook the less appealing aspects that have defined the Mt. A student experience. We must remember that in the past few years the interests of senior decision makers at Mt. A have often been opposed to those of students and faculty.

After a three-week faculty strike in the winter of 2014, it was hard to think of Mt. A as a community void of conflict. The need for concern was reinforced this January when students protested against the senior administration’s attempt to cut the women’s and gender studies program.

Circumstances like these call for a new type of journalism. In a space where many bodies and identities are marginalized, to be neutral is to be complicit. This is why the Argosy will not strive to achieve objectivity. Instead we will uphold fairness in conditions that are often unfair.

The theme of our first issue is Reorientation. To change our community for the better, we must see it for what it is. At the Argosy, that means reorienting ourselves not as objective observers of isolated events, but rather as concerned and critical students striving to see the bigger picture.

Our goal is to be a mouthpiece for student activity at Mt. A. There are many student organizations that work to make our community a more inclusive, safe, dynamic and creative space. This work is necessary and deserves our attention.

You don’t have to be a professional to share your thoughts on what is happening around you. Your lived experiences are valid, and we will try to provide a platform for you to share them.

In the months ahead, we wish to start a dialogue with students about what our community is, and what we want it to be.

We hope to hear your voice in the Argosy this year.

One Response

  1. “Circumstances like these call for a new type of journalism. In a space where many bodies and identities are marginalized, to be neutral is to be complicit. This is why the Argosy will not strive to achieve objectivity. Instead we will uphold fairness in conditions that are often unfair.”

    This is really, REALLY problematic. Journalism and opinion writing are not the same thing. To be a journalist is to look for the truth, whether or not you agree with it. It’s to present these facts in a way that is as unbiased as possible, to ensure that the masses who are reading your newspaper are able to then form their own opinions, given the evidence you have collected. The reason that the Argosy has an opinions section is to give voice to those who wish to express their viewpoint on an issue. An entire newspaper which is focussed only on opinions is not a newspaper at all. It’s a brochure, a piece of marketing material for whatever opinions and bias are represented by the people putting it together.

    What you seem to be saying is, there are people we don’t agree with, and we’re going to use the privilege afforded to us, and the esteemed tradition that has been entrusted to us, to broadcast our opinion that these people are wrong. And that is far worse than any sort of cuts or misguided decisions made by the university administration.

    You are not merely the new editorial team of a student newspaper. You are the latest in over a century of student journalists who invested sweat, and tears, late nights and early mornings, to talk about the little bubble that is Sackville, and Mount Allison. This is bigger than you. It seems almost a slap in the face to all that came before you, to decide that you somehow have the right to grab ahold of the wheel, and change the direction that this sturdy little Argosy has been sailing in.

    Is it objectively a good thing to fight for those who cannot always fight for themselves? Yes. Is it objectively a good thing to critically think about the viewpoints and facts laid before you, to form your own opinions, based on this information? Of course. This is what you’re paying thousands and thousands of dollars to do. But it is not the responsibility, nor is it the place, of the Argosy staff to explicitly pick a side.

    You are supposed to be objective. That’s what you signed up for.

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