Letter to the Editor
Editorial on UISG off-base
As a response to the Oct. 20 editorial regarding the UI Student Government-sponsored City Council forum, the Governmental Relations Committee would like to pose a question to The Daily Iowan’s Editorial Board: Why is the positive coverage of our work on behalf of students continually overlooked?
While you were writing an accusatory editorial about an event that “verged on explicit conflicts of interest,” the committee was busy working on the following tasks: organizing a statewide conference in Des Moines for student leaders to come together to discuss pressing student issues, forming a tuition task force to research and address the recent tuition concerns of students, and informing and galvanizing students about the upcoming City Council election.
We have yet to see these successes covered.
Why discourage student participation in local government when you could partner with UISG to ensure the student voice is heard — not just the DI Editorial Board’s? As elected student leaders, we are aware that our lives are in the public eye. But it seems as though this publication only reports on us when it benefits its image by criticizing ours.
The concerns on the minds of the majority of students is that of affordable tuition — not who is dating whom in student government — which is why UISG is fighting to ensure students’ interests are not cut along with the state budget.
If both of our objectives are to empower and promote the voices of students, why does it seem that you are working against us to achieve that goal? We consider the DI an asset to the UI community and a tool for truth. Therefore, we are giving you the opportunity to report without personal bias or agendas, and we sincerely hope you embrace that opportunity.
Whitney Carson
UISG senator and Governmental Relations Committee chairwoman
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