By Emily Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief
When someone asks you to share a fact about yourself, what is the first thing you tell them? Oftentimes, the initial detail that comes to mind is so essential to our being that it sums up and represents exactly who we are. We care a lot about how others perceive us and want to ensure that we accurately portray our personality and values to them.
Since its inception, the YU Observer has had a very similar version of its About Page displayed on its website for years. The About Page of a newspaper is the most crucial element of its website. The page represents exactly what the publication’s primary goals and missions are. Yet, as I sat at my dull, brown dorm desk in the Brookdale Residence Hall last year, I couldn’t help but stare at the YU Observer’s website and think that it was (to state it quite bluntly) simply not cutting it.
The first sentence, “Founded by the women of Yeshiva University’s Stern College in 1958” is the strongest opening line any About Page could aspire to convey. It hits the reader hard with the creed on which the YU Observer was founded: giving the marginalized a voice. The YU Observer was created with the goal of providing all YU students, specifically those who would otherwise have no other opportunity, a space to share their unique experiences and passions with the YU community. This paper was started with the hopes of sharing crucial stories about critical topics in order to raise awareness of the many important issues – both within this institution as well as in the world at large – that need to be shared to create positive change. This goal of highlighting the untold student perspective, the true mission of the YU Observer, is encapsulated in this first phrase.
After this line, however, the About Page fell short. In my personal opinion, it did not continue to display any of these primary values on which the YU Observer strives to uphold within our reporting.
That is why I decided to change this About Page. Formulating the new description was no easy undertaking. I found myself contemplating every single word, wondering if each letter truly expressed the values of the YU Observer. This new version, I believe, more accurately represents the “sole focus” of the YU Observer: “promoting student voices.”
What often strikes a reader about the YU Observer is that there is no news section within its pages. Rather, the YU Observer’s main section is opinions. By placing an emphasis on student beliefs, the YU Observer seeks to provide “a space where everyone can speak up and raise awareness upon issues that they are passionate about.” Therefore, for the YU Observer, journalism is not just about what happened, but rather, spotlighting student perspectives on the impact of news events on our communities. Journalism’s influence comes from promoting the student voice, providing a place for all to write about the topics that speak most to them and sharing these stories with those who need to hear them most.
Not having a news section is a statement, one I am extremely proud to make. If you want to know about the true news happening at YU, what better place to hear it than from the very students who walk its halls every day and from those who are directly affected by every decision the YU administration makes. In fact, it is unsettling, but unfortunately not surprising, that many of the topics covered in the YU Observer are very similar every year, precisely because the YU administration continuously fails to act upon the issues that its students report on. If YU really wants to become a better place for the students it claims to serve, then the institution must start listening to their voices.
The stories in the YU Observer are so much more than news simply by the fact that they are told by students themselves. By having the courage to share their own beliefs, students are telling stories that need to be shared in order to expose the problems within YU and the broader Jewish community that need immediate change. Therefore, the YU Observer’s About Page is a microcosm of the primary goal of journalism itself: giving a voice to the voiceless. Without a student newspaper that emphasizes the student voice, without journalism, there would be nowhere else to turn in order to share our crucial stories about the world with others.
That is why the YU Observer is the student newspaper of Yeshiva University. We are the voice of the YU student body: those who experience the “news” that we are reporting on firsthand and have something to say about it. So if you have a story, share it. The chance to be a part of the student newspaper does not last forever. You only have a finite amount of time to contribute and shape the community that you want to see YU become. With the short time that we have the privilege of being a part of it, utilize the opportunity it presents you with to contribute through writing and showcasing your unique voice.
After starting at my computer screen for an entire year wondering if our About Page truly represents the values the YU Observer holds dear – that we carry with each and every story that we publish – I now believe that our About Page truly expresses the essence of all the dedication that goes into those very pages we grasp in our hands at the end of each month. They encapsulate our primary concern, our only concern, “to serve as the voice of the students.”
Photo Credit: Emily Goldberg