Brittany Wilson

Brittany Wilson

Brittany Wilson (Whetstone Staff Writer)

There is nothing more frustrating than someone who holds all of the answers to all of your questions, but refuses to acknowledge that you ever asked anything at all.

Someone who would rather keep secrets and let rumors circulate than release an honest account of the facts.

Someone who blatantly ignores simple requests from the same students they are paid to serve.

“Students come first,” they always say. 

Really? Prove it.

…

I have never been a patient person.

Even as a little girl I was driven, determined, ready for anything.

Some things never change.

My second year as a student at Wesley I found myself the managing editor of the college newspaper, The Whetstone.  Journalism was the one career path that moved as fast-paced as I did, and I felt like I had finally found my place.

But I have come to realize that journalism is not a place for impatient people.  So many roadblocks stand in the way of the story I am trying to tell—so many people who want to hide the truth I am trying to expose.

And many of the roadblocks are built by the people who are employed specifically to help students.  Why are the people who are supposed to be enhancing my education the ones who are holding me back the most?

I began this semester with several story ideas I wanted to publish in the first issue of The Whetstone—one in particular was about a dorm search in Williams Hall last semester. Another was a follow-up story about the investigation surrounding the security guard who was accused of punching a student.

The Whetstone staff found out about the Williams dorm search right after it happened in October.  Many students witnessed Williams’ residents lined up outside for a “fire drill,” which lasted more than two hours.  When students were finally allowed to reenter their rooms, they found things misplaced, broken, and even confiscated.

It was not a fire drill at all – it was a dorm search. Angry students talked about how unprofessionally the situation was handled and how secretive the administration was being about it.

I hoped to publish a story detailing both sides— highlighting both student and administrative perspectives.  But not one member of the administration answered a single email.

I don’t understand why.  The search isn’t a secret.  Everyone already knows about it.  There are still rumors circulating around campus about it.  Why can’t we clear them up?

I also wanted to publish a follow-up story to the “Security Accused of Acting Unprofessionally” article we printed last semester.  After learning security had conducted an investigation about the incident, I reached out, hoping to inform students how things turned out.

But instead of explaining the process of the investigation or telling students what the findings were, all we were told was “an investigation was conducted,” it was “a personnel issue” and “eyewitnesses were interviewed.”

Why so many secrets?  Don’t students have a right to know what is happening on campus?  And what the heck is so scary about The Whetstone?

Students have the right to know what is going on.  I have the right to tell them.