Dear Readers,
Welcome to the editorial section of The Baylor Lariat. Since this is the first publication of the year, we felt like now would be the perfect time to reintroduce ourselves. First, we wanted to explain exactly what an editorial board is and second, we wanted to state our mission for the upcoming semester.
Editorial boards are a part of journalism that is commonly mistaken by readers. Even The New York Times published a breakdown of what an editorial board is and what it looks like in an effort to bring clarity to its audience—our goal is to do the same.
Editorial is essentially a synonym for opinion, meaning that everything published in this section intentionally takes an opinionated stance. What makes this different from a regular column, however, is that an editorial is crafted by the collective opinion of those on the editorial board. These members are selected by the editor-in-chief each semester and can always be identified by the asterisk next to their name in the staff box published at the bottom of this page and online.
Contrary to past criticism, our commitment with editorials is not to “balance it out” by publishing an opposing side for each one. Our job here is to take a stance. However, our commitment to our readers is to strive for a diverse range of opinions within the editorial board, which we acknowledge is something we have not always had.
This semester’s editorial board is made up of one returner and five new members, chosen with the intent to represent many different perspectives on campus. In our first meeting, we sat down and outlined our dedication to diversity in both opinion and representation.
There are a lot of young and new faces on the Lariat staff this year, and our primary goal is to do good journalism. The editorial board believes that if we pursue this during our meetings—if we research thoroughly and craft editorials formed by genuine debate between our differing opinions—we have done our job well.
From there, we do not apologize for whether our readers like what we have to say. It’s our job to put in the work on the front end, produce content we can be proud of and represent as many voices as possible through our unified approach.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a separate place for our readers’ voices. Anyone, at any time, is welcome to send a letter to the editor in response to something we publish or submit a guest column to be considered for publication in the opinion section (lariat-letters@baylor.edu). The only underrepresented opinion is the one that isn’t shared with us.
So, with a new semester upon us, consider this a fresh start. We are here to be the voice of The Baylor Lariat—a voice that is strong, a voice that is always learning and a voice that honors our commitment to good journalism.
Sincerely,
The Editorial Board
