Elmhurst College: Pay us the attention we deserve

This year at the Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) conference and competition, The Leader took home a total of 14 awards, but most importantly, The Leader won the first place award in General Excellence in our division. This makes us the best college newspaper in the state for schools that have under 4,000 students enrolled. 

While this is a great accomplishment, as of the time this is being written, a week after winning these awards, Elmhurst College as a whole has yet to acknowledge the paper for this outstanding achievement.

We are well aware that we may have not always been in good graces with a lot of the staff, faculty, and administration on campus. We have been quite experimental and unconventional in some of our content, such as our recent special issue for “Cuffing Season”, and we have exposed truths about EC that some people would rather have swept under the rug.

Our job as a newspaper is to serve the campus as a whole and give them the news they deserve—not useless fluff that is meant to showcase the “good side” of the school. The major—and arguably most important—population we serve are the current students; the “Cuffing Season” issue was more catered to them and thus was received better by that specific population.

When people who the administration especially value (prospective students and their families, donors, really anyone who is going to put money in their pockets) visit the school, we understand that it may be off putting for them to see “negative” news about EC on the stands around campus. 

We, as student journalists, hope to seek an unbiased truth on what is going on at EC. We would hope that those running our school expect truth in the news sources they use—a bit hypocritical to expect anything different from us.

We work hard around the clock missing out on class, sleep, and socialization to deliver news, whether it be about a big game or a lingering rumor on campus, to provide 100% accuracy to the campus only to be ridiculed and called an over-sensationalized media outlet. 

But what about our big award? One would think that EC would be right on top of that, boasting about this achievement and taking ownership of it. How great would this be to get students to come here? This is especially great to those who are interested in the journalism track of the new Digital Media major.

EC takes no time at all to support the achievements of other organizations, especially sports (like how the men’s basketball team won the CCIW tournament), but when it comes to supporting The Leader, they seem to lack this same support. 

Obviously, it is no better if administration gets to pick-and-choose when we are liked by them. We deserve to be recognized for our hard efforts and for contributing something to this campus that people should be proud of.