Dear readers,
We’re excited to welcome you to a new semester of The Augur Bit. The three of us started our work on the Bit as freshmen at the inaugural boot camp—a training where staff members and prospective staff members learn about journalism. As we are settling into our roles as senior editors, we have been reflecting on our experiences at the first boot camp and agreed that the biggest thing that stood out to us was the perspective of a GDS administrator.
The administrator, GDS Director of External Affairs Alison Grasheim, came to talk to boot camp attendees about her experience interacting with the Bit as someone who manages public relations for the school. She told the staff and those interested in joining the Bit that GDS commonly gets interview requests from numerous professional publications along with The Augur Bit. Grasheim said that she trains other administrators and teachers to treat the Bit the same way they would a professional publication. Now, as senior editors for the Bit, we have become very familiar with the standard that the community holds the paper to.
While we take pride in the high standard that we are held to, we believe that with it should come the freedom of a professional paper. Press freedom for a newspaper is crucial. It allows journalists to explore and report on issues without undue restraint, enabling us to serve as a true voice for the community. The Augur Bit isn’t formally guaranteed this freedom.
We understand that formalized full press freedom would come with significant responsibilities. The Bit and its staff have proved time and time again we are capable of handling these responsibilities through thoughtful reporting, respectful interactions with sources and publishing corrections when necessary. Throughout our term, we will continue pushing for formal press freedom from GDS.
While the fight for press freedom will always be at the forefront of our minds, we, of course, are working to improve the quality of the Bit. In order to do this, we have two main goals for the upcoming year.
First, we will publish news stories about events that occur in the GDS community right after they happen. We have noticed that too often the Bit prioritizes exhausting every possible source over publishing quick news coverage. We want the Bit to be the first news source you look at to learn about events affecting the GDS community. Quick news coverage by no means jeopardizes the quality of Bit reporting. The stories we publish will be accurate, be relevant and will often have follow-up articles that include community responses to the topic.
Second, we want to emphasize that anyone can write a piece for the Opinions section, which we hope will act as a platform for community members and writers to express their views. We encourage you, as readers, to use the Opinions section as an outlet to share your thoughts. Prior experience with journalism isn’t necessary to contribute. In the past, many community members not on the staff have written opinion pieces. We want to ensure that the section can be an accessible platform.
We are excited to work with the Bit this year and publish stories that help inform the GDS community and beyond.
Best,
Callie Solomon, Peter Kumar and Jeremiah Farr