The BSSSA’s newspaper?

"Fishing for Funds” (Thursday February, 12) is but the latest token of the BSSSA’s growing, unjustified dominance on campus and, particularly, in the student newspaper. Since the fall semester the Arbiter has effectively become the chronicler of the BSSSA. This should not have been allowed to happen. The Arbiter is not the BSSSA’s newspaper; it is the newspaper of the whole student body.

It was bad journalism for the Arbiter to publish only the comments of the anti-lawsuit students in Thursday’s article, never mind having the gall to tout them as average “student voices”. That particular sample of student voices was not representative of the entire student body. The authors should have tried to be more fair (e.g., they could have included a comment from a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish student).

The larger problem, I’m afraid, is the BSSSA’s tightening grip on the Arbiter. Since last fall I have watched as the Alliance has come to be given the loudest voice and the largest forum among the many student groups. While I no longer have copies of the newspapers, I remember reading two or three stories about the BSSSA during the first weeks of school last fall. I wondered, “Is there anything else happening on campus?” If I was reading our newspaper as a non-student, I might have concluded, “No”.

Before I put down my pen, I must address a possible misunderstanding about my motivation for writing this opinion. The problems discussed in “Fishing for Funds” concern the rights of religious groups at a publicly-funded institution. This is not the inspiration for this essay. While I do have my own strong beliefs, I write this as a consumer of a student newspaper. Regardless of the funding issues, the glaring injustice now is that Lloyd Lowe and his group are being allowed to dominate the most conspicuous element of our campus’s media. The BSSSA stands for inclusiveness, but apparently they will gladly keep the gatekeepers at the Arbiter spellbound.

The BSSSA has gone too far. The ridiculous amount of coverage they have received since the fall proves this. This is a state school, and there are plenty of other non-religious and religious groups that deserve to be exposed in our newspaper. Let’s keep it balanced. It is in the interest of all students to start quibbling about having a “piece of the print” and not just a “piece of the green."

SAM KELLEY
Guest Opinion

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