Jake Bradner | Kristen Griffith/The Whetstone
By Jake Bradner, The Whetstone
While I personally disagreed with a few things spoken at Wesley’s public forum in April, I found the most fault with the comments from President Robert Clark II.
During the last few minutes of the forum, President Clark stood in front of a huge number of people—including students, faculty, and staff—and claimed that The Whetstone does not represent Wesley College.
His main validation was the newspaper’s slogan, which states The Whetstone is an independent student newspaper.
President Clark’s assertion is simply wrong.
To say that something doesn’t represent another entity just because it is independent is a foolish argument.
There are plenty of independent entities that are representative of certain groups of people.
The NAACP, for example, is an independent organization that strives to make the world a better place for people of color.
According to President Clark’s logic, this means that the NAACP does not represent the people of color in this country, simply because it is independent.
Most would agree that’s flat-out wrong.
But that’s beside the point.
In stating that The Whetstone doesn’t represent Wesley College, President Clark is ignoring me and you—the student voice.
His job as the president is to listen to everyone to help improve things at Wesley College. However when something written in the paper is a negative reflection of himself or the school, he wants to block it out and pretend the problem doesn’t exist.
Unfortunately, that’s not how the media works.
That’s not how life works.
There’s always going to be a balance of good and bad. It’s nearly impossible for every little thing in life to be positive. And if it was, it’d be a lie.
People need to be aware of their surroundings—the good and the bad. If we as reporters didn’t provide that to students, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs.
Saying that everything is perfectly fine at Wesley College is just as naïve as saying Dover is crime-free.
The Whetstone strives to initiate conversations that will make campus a better place.
When President Clark denies that The Whetstone represents Wesley, he is blocking that progress—minimizing the importance of the student voice.
