Editorial: The Trop’s purpose

20 years later, we are still not a PR tool

In 1997, Jim Egan, a sports reporter at the time, wrote a column on the Opinion page titled “The Tropolitan is not a public relations tool.”

Twenty years later, the Tropolitan editorial board would like to share those same sentiments to respond to recent criticism of our staff’s news stories.

First of all, we’d like to say that the Tropolitan staff works tirelessly to make sure you, the students, stay informed of what is happening on our campus.

While we love and respect the school we go to, we are not a public relations tool for the university. Although we appreciate the loyal readership of the administration and our professors, we do not work for them.

Rather, we work for you, the students. The administration does not, and will not, vet or censor the articles we publish.

We want to do everything we can to be of service to our readers. That is our No. 1 goal.

To do that, we have to report the news. We cannot favor one organization over the other to save face for the university or any of its organizations.

This is of benefit to you, the student body. Through reporting and investigation, we are able to hold our administration and our student organizations accountable to serve their shared purpose of serving Troy’s students.

We are able to keep you informed about the various events that occur on our campus and in our community. Every week, we are excited to tell you about the accomplishments of our students and our professors.

If we receive a lead about something that might be controversial on campus, we do everything we can to provide you with a fair and balanced article with opportunities for all sides to share their point of view.

We are held to the same standards as any other news agency.

This is why we work hard to make sure our facts are correct and verify our information with as many sources as necessary. This is why it is important to respond to our inquiries; if you don’t respond, we can’t tell your side of the story and can only work off the information we’ve been given from other reliable sources.

We are proud of the work we do, and we consider ourselves lucky to have as many readers as we do each week.

If you would like to follow other media outlets, Troy publishes its own blog titled Troy Today.  You can also follow our fellow student media organizations, TrojanVision and Palladium.

Pick up a copy of a Tropolitan at any major academic building on campus, or check out our up-to-date website at tropnews.com.

If you disagree with an article we’ve written and want to share your perspective, feel free to email us a ‘Letter to the Editor’ at opinion@tropnews.com.