Hilltop Views Volume 1 Issue 1 Editorial (1987)

By Vincent Cheves

This issue marks the birth of the Hilltop Views. It seems rather appropriate that the in-depth focus of this first issue is student life. The student newspaper is an essential element of student life and the overall university community experience. Or at least it should be.

Therein lies the focus of this editorial: what is the purpose and function of a student newspaper in the context of a university community? Ideally, a column such as this one would not be necessary because, ideally, the purpose and function of a student newspaper should be the same as that of any other newspaper, student or otherwise. That this column is even being written is indicative of the current alarming state of the student press, not only at St. Edward’s but nationally as well.

The Campus Chronicle, a publication of the College Press Service, mailed out the following release:

“It’s been an amazing first half of the school year. The Campus anti-apartheid movement – and administrator’s reaction to it – took an ominous new turn. A new law made applying for student aid a whole new ball game. Scores of campuses began what promises to be a national slashing at the number of courses students can take. Some hot majors cooled. The administration warned new aid cuts are coming this semester. And the toughest crackdowns on student behavior since the fifties began. If your readers don’t know about these and the hundreds of other national college news stories that broke since September, they might not be able to do too great a job planning the rest of their college careers. Still another semester full of news is coming.”

So that is where the Hilltop Views currently stands: poised on the brink of another semester’s events, developments and projections. Our purpose is to report the news and present information of interest and of use to our readers. Our function is to report and present accurately and without bias whatever is deemed newsworthy and appropriate in the context of the St. Edward’s community.

The Hilltop Views does not create issues; it merely reports them. This is our duty, our purpose and our function. It is our goal for the Spring semester to give our readers the information and news they need and deserve, and we fully intend to just that in a timely, professional manner.