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By: Ian Essling
Editor In Chief Ian Essling takes Insight readers on a behind-the-scenes look at Insight and the rumors that abound about the paper. Find out what's fact, what's fiction, and what is the deep dark secret behind Von Ohlen 230.
Another semester is upon us, and another round of tall tales are again floating through the halls of Waubonsee. The tides of the rumor mill are cyclical, it appears.
Regardless of their origins, I am here to dispel the mist and mystery around as many of them as I can in the space I have.
Some of these are pretty simple, but others are quite involved. I hope that you will hang with me through them all, and that you can finish this article with a better understanding of where Insight comes from and where it's going.
Have a question about Insight that I missed? I'd love to hear about it and include it in the next issue: insight@waubonsee.edu.
I felt that this deserved a top-slot in my list because it is probably one of the most hotly contested and least understood aspects of the paper.
It is a common misconception that by printing something, we are endorsing it. That is simply not the case. As stated on our opinion pages, the editorials are the opinions of the writers and should not be taken as the opinion of the Insight staff as a whole.
In reality, Insight student editors are the ONLY people who decide what material is published in the newspaper. There's not an administrative body on campus that has oversight over this publication. The student editors are the people making the decisions about what gets printed; after all, it IS a student newspaper.
Personally, I think that there are some people in the Waubonsee administration who wish they could control what we publish, but thankfully, freedom of speech remains intact. Sometimes I think that some difficulties Insight faces stem from this situation (such as being stuffed into a utility closet for over a year), but of course, that's just speculation on my part.
Complaining to Waubonsee, the Career Services Center or the scholarship foundation committee (all of which have been done this past year) is really not going to have much of an effect on us.
Even complaining to your teacher is not going to do it. Believe me, I know there are some sympathetic ears on campus for those that want to rag on the paper.
I can even provide you a list if that's the route you want to take, but honestly, why not just come to the source? If someone wants to voice their opinion about something we printed, they need to come directly to us.
Unfortunately, I have heard a number of stories of people sending information to Waubonsee itself that was intended for the newspaper, equally unfortunate is the fact that Waubonsee does not usually pass this sort of misdirected communication on to us.
For example, one of our editors recently heard a student trash the paper for not printing a letter to the editor that she delivered.to the admissions and records desk.
For years, people called Insight "Gary's paper" because of how dedicated Gary Clark, our faculty advisor, is to the paper, People just assumed that he was in charge of it.
In all honestly, if this paper really was "Gary's paper," it would not be a student newspaper anymore, it would be a faculty newspaper.
That is why the Insight staff is grateful for the freedom we are allowed. Our advisors never read our opinion pieces before they are published. Insight editors make the determination as to what opinion pieces we print.
Our advisors will sometimes help with proofreading of non-controversial news or features pieces, but our opinion section is a haven of free speech.
The views of the "editors" of the paper vary across a wide spectrum.
An article that one editor agrees with, another may disagree with, and vice versa. therefore, this misconception makes no sense at all.
Rest assured that denying publishing rights to articles that I disagree with is not an action I engage in, nor is it something I allow my editors to do.
Any unbiased glance at our opinion section from a few months worth of papers pretty much proves that point.
As an Editor In Chief, my goal is to build a quality newspaper.
Throwing out articles does not move us closer to that goal, so why would we do it ? After all, we can't print a bunch of blank pages.
The vast majority of articles make it past the preliminary phases of editing without a problem and are then subject to the whims of timeliness, space, and layout.
In all honesty, those are the attributes that have the largest effect on whether or not an opinion is printed, not the view expressed.
Now, that's not to say that every opinion piece that we receive is printed; that would be inaccurate and misleading, and the whole intention of this article is to clear up all the inaccurate and misleading things others are saying about this organization.
I can count on my hands the number of opinion articles Insight has not printed in the past three years for reasons other than time and space constraint. There are only seven or so of them, out of a total pool of hundreds of submitted articles.
Insight itself is none of these things; Insight is an organization, not a person. Granted, it is the sum of those involved, but it's not a one person or cabal-style dictatorship, despite what some would have you believe.
The fact that our opinion pages have recently appeared to be slanted to the conservative side is only a testament to one thing: conservative writers are penning pieces and submitting them, while liberals are not. It is that simple of an equation.
If no one writes the other side of an argument, then the opinion section might appear biased. Ironically, Insight has a history of being liberal; in all the years that I've been at Waubonsee (both as a reader and a staff member), Insight has normally only had a token conservative or two on staff, with the entire editorial council falling left of center.
Strangely, no one complained about THAT situation, but as soon as we have some conservative voices, you would think that the sky is falling with how serious of a "problem" some people consider it.
It is wrong for Insight as an organization to deny freedom of speech to a writer simply because no one is writing against the first writer's opinion. That, ladies and gentlemen, is censorship.
The only reason that Insight's opinion section can be considered 'conservative' or 'liberal' is because the 'other' side is simply is not writing articles or letters to the editor.
Something that I've noticed over the past few years is that often, the most vocal opponents of the paper and our writers are usually the last ones to pick up a pen and respond in kind.
It is much easier for a student to insult a faceless writer, or for a teacher to give a speech to an entire class about the 'terrible things' that exist in the pages of the paper, than it is for them to stand up and put their opinion in print. It takes guts to put your name on your opinion and put it out there for the world to see. Some people have those guts, and some do not.
A number of "letter to the editor" debates have circled around Insight over the past few years; they edit too much, they don't edit enough, they try to make people look stupid, those sorts of things.
Once and for all, I am clearing this up. For the record, we do not ever edit letters to the editor for anything other than profanity. If someone who writes in to us does not take the time to grammar check his or her own piece, then so be it.
Our heavy-duty editing only applies to non-opinion articles. At Insight, we make every effort to preserve the writer's message in opinion articles. We will edit these articles for spelling, grammar, clarity, brevity and other similar factors, but we never make edits that undermine or change the meaning of the author's work.
We were moved out of our old office, Von Ohlen 100, before the spring 2006 semester, and we were moved completely against our will.
Honestly, no one in their right mind would ask to be moved or agree with a move from such an awesome location (complete with windows and a chalkboard) to a room that has served as a storage closet for something like the last ten years.
Now, with regard to the "new office" for this semester. We were in discussions with our dean, Cindy Fisher, and the dean of social sciences, Jill Wold, to find us a new office. Unfortunately for us, the location that was presented to us was Weigel 107, an old, dirty and defunct science laboratory in a lower traffic building on the wrong side of campus for an English-discipline group.
Obviously, that location makes so sense at all, and we were somewhat upset that it was even considered and shown to us. It is already an adventure to find our current office, and Weigel 107 is even further off the beaten path.
No one would suggest that an active science club that recruited 90% of its members from science classes relocate its permanent office to Von Ohlen or Bodie, and by the same token, having an English group in an old science building made no sense.
Putting the newspaper into Weigel 107 would have been devastating to this publication.
Hopefully, the staff that takes over in fall 2007 will have a better location. With the opening of the Academic and Professional Center, there will be a lot of empty space in Bodie and Von Ohlen; keep your fingers crossed.
Years ago, a proposal was put forward to get the Insight editors paid, and it was summarily dismissed. Thus, this myth is cut and dried: we do not get paid, at all, ever.
Logically, since most other college paper staffs ARE paid, many people just assume that this is true here as well. However, as I have learned from dealing with some members of Waubonsee administration, logic is not something you can count on.
I personally think that my editors SHOULD be paid, because many of the staffers on this paper put in as many (if not more) hours than a full-time job, but for now, it's not a happening thing.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most important in this list. You see, on top of writing the stories and laying out the paper, the staff of Insight also has to raise thousands of dollars to pay for printing costs.
Occasionally, we are able to get some funding from Student Senate to use for special purchases, but our day-to-day spending comes from our own hard earned money.
That's why it's rough on us when people throw away our papers for no reason. When an art student uses the paper to catch paint, they are crumpling up our money.
When maintenance takes it upon themselves to "clean out" our paper rack because the papers are "old," they are tossing away hard earned money.
Insight always, always accepts new writers and columnists. The only positions that we do not have perpetual open slots in are editorial positions. So, if you are interested in writing, don't think that you have to wait for an "opening." Join up today!
This misconception is one of those little things that isn't malicious, but just the result of Insight not doing the best that we can to make sure students are aware of these things.
Anyone, in any discipline, is eligible to write for Insight. For example, right now our editorial council is made up of the following majors: a business, two journalisms, an aerospace engineering, a sociology and an undecided.
And that's just the editors! Our general staff exhibits even more variety in majors.
We have a plaque that sits on the desk in our office that shows all the Editor In Chiefs of the paper between 1967 and 1994 (the last year it was updated). We keep this around to remind us that we are but a ripple in the pond of this organization.
Thanks to the hard work and dedication of hundreds of student editors and writers, faculty advisors who care about their students, and the loyal readers, Insight has prospered for forty years. It is my sincere hope that it is around for another forty and forty beyond that.
I hope that I have given you a glimpse at what Insight is all about, and a new appreciation for what we do.
You see, we are students, just like many of you. On top of our homework and jobs, we also build a newspaper.
By no means have I addressed all the issues that have been brought up about Insight. If you have a question about Insight that I didn't cover, please, feel free to email us and we will do our best to answer it. 
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