Everyone has room for improvement
Each New Year's arrives with the promise of a clean slate and a fresh start. It's a season for each of us to reflect on past accomplishments and a time to resolve to improve ourselves. At least we hope everyone made New Year's resolutions. After all, the only ones who probably don't make New Year's resolutions are angels and slackers - the rest of us have a great deal to improve upon.
Of course, resolutions alone don't initiate change. We need to recognize personal shortcomings and areas we desire to improve. This recognition fuels a determination that helps us accomplish our goals. Often, determined individuals will share their resolutions - whether it be acing a difficult course or running five miles a week - with friends so they can encourage each other. That is why we want to share The Daily Universe's New Year's resolutions with you.
While it is true fledgling journalism students run the college newspaper, The Daily Universe is a newspaper lab in name only. We take our role as a community newspaper seriously and have been recognized for our news coverage. Just this summer, The Daily Universe won third place in a competition that included professional newspapers from across Utah. But rather than sit back on our haunches and glory in past accomplishments, we're determined to redouble our efforts to serve the BYU community better.
We recommit ourselves to follow the principles of public journalism. We will work diligently to provide the most accurate news from the world and nation in a timely fashion, but we will also focus on putting public issues into the context of the BYU community. We will not be content to merely report what the issue is, but we will do our best to report why the news is relevant to members of the BYU community. We will also work to draw on a broad range of community perspectives.
We will continue to be strong advocates of open discussion on our campus. We do not endorse every opinion expressed in the newspaper, but we recognize that opinion's right to be heard and discussed. Even as Paul taught the Thessalonians to 'Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,' we believe the free flow of discussion is essential to our democratic society. Through this continuous exchange of opinions, we are able to understand others' points of view and understand our own convictions betters. That is why we set aside so much space in the newspaper, and on the Web site, for students and faculty to express their opinions.
These are our goals to improve as an institution and better serve the BYU community. Now that we've shared them with you, we hope you'll hold us accountable for these goals and tell us when you think we're faltering.