Incoming Daily editorial page editor Jason Pesick has done something likely a first in Daily history: put student activists in the same box with censorship-minded administrators. Over its entire history, the Daily has had a close relationship with students, and frequently the Daily stood in for the opinion of the student body. But no longer – if you’re not with us, you’re against us! Because we’re disliked by everyone, we must be independent! Unfortunately for Pesick, the Daily just isn’t as independent as he’d like to make them out to be – sure, they are self-financing, but the administration can remove their editors and control their finances, and they use cut-rate University phone lines, internet connections, and rent a university-owned building.
“… In the ’70s, the University attempted to weaken the Daily by publishing The University Record on Mondays, the day the Daily did not publish. In 1996, copies of the Daily were stolen to prevent their circulation, and students who boycotted the Daily in the last academic year attempted to do the same. The Michigan Student Assembly fanned the flames of the boycott with a resolution supporting the boycotters. And only last year, students called upon the University to remove the Daily’s office space.
Despite these spats, there remains no more dedicated advocate of those issues that concern students than the Daily’s editorial page. The paper is financially and editorially independent of the University. We receive no funds and we will accept no funds from MSA or the administration, and they will not dictate what appears on our pages. We rely on the University only to provide us with discerning readers.
Borrowing from a line coined by the journalist Edward Murrow, President John Kennedy said of Winston Churchill, “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”
As I now assume the helm of this page, I promise you, our readers, that during my tenure we will use the power of the pen to further our idealistic principles: namely, social equality, economic opportunity and our celestial goals of academic and editorial freedom.” (“Celestial”?)
> From “Our journey forward”
Also of note from the Daily:
> “SAPAC to move counseling services”
> “‘Last lecture’ lauds political activism of today’s students”