Staff Editorial

In preparation for this week’s issue, we combed through 10 decades of our old newspapers, as well as secondary sources. One thing that stuck out was how The Duke’s profile on campus has shrunk. In the past, The Duke occupied a tangible space in the cultural zeitgeist on campus. That’s because it carried the opinions and ideas of people important to the community. Lately though, struggles to get straight answers out of those figures have made our jobs much harder, and in turn do a disservice to the student body.

We want so badly to be the best reporters possible, and do justice to everything that happens on campus, but it is a team effort. We need participation from those at Duquesne, especially the administration, to provide insights that tell the complete story.

Genuine conversations with knowledgeable people educate the writers. Educated writers write good and accurate articles.

It is in the public’s interest for the people with the most knowledge of the institution to talk to the press and clarify any questions the community has. We are here to provide the facts about our school and the communities around it. We need the big wigs to help us do that.

A thorough examination of The Duke’s communications with Duquesne’s administration and faculty this school year showed that around 60% of requests for comment are given satisfactory responses. This number is based on the amount of emails our editors have received rejecting requests for comment and interviews over the last year. The administration did not respond to requests for comment when asked about this issue.

Transparency is crucial to our credibility. Given that we are closely associated with the school, choosing to make our jobs difficult is like cutting off its nose to spite its face. Our relevance is absolutely crucial if Duquesne wants to have its media department continue to grow and build better journalists.

There are times when the university is incredibly helpful and lets our reporters in to get the full story.

The best example of this happened last month. When we saw a photo from the New York Times of President Ken Gormley sitting across from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the inaugural luncheon, we reached out to the administration and got the chance to sit down with him to hear about his experience. It allowed us to share new information that squashed rumors and told the whole story of a situation that was incredibly relevant to the community.

Not only was it one of our most read articles this year with over 850 online views as of Wednesday, it also fulfilled our duty to educate the readers. Hopefully, that article showed we are not some predatory hunter of Duquesne’s innermost secrets, but rather students who want to know more about our world and share that with our peers.