Executive editor Stephen Neukam has hope for Rider community
I believe in our community.
Coming from a not-so-diverse area in Maryland, I appreciate the different cultures, backgrounds and histories that comprise our student body.
These experiences are what makes Rider such a great place to cover as a journalist — the excellence of our athletics, the extraordinary accomplishments of our students, the brilliance of our arts — all of these things make my job very exciting.
Its rewarding to highlight the incredible moments that happen on campus.
However, it would be naive to not expect roadblocks and hardships. Further, it would be helpful to be transparent about the tests that we will face together as a community and personally as a news organization.
Our school will face the continued debate surrounding Westminster Choir College (WCC), and the more immediate issue of integrating its student body into Lawrenceville by next September. This topic includes a complicated legal battle, disagreements between faculty and administrators and, in my mind, the more important aspect of the stress this causes for WCC’s student body and educators.
As the community adds more political organizations, with the re-introduction of the Rider Democrats, and the increased participation in and relevance of events such as Turning Point U.S.A.’s “White Privilege is a Myth” talk late last semester, we must learn how to responsibly navigate the debate it causes and evaluate what these ideas mean to our campus.
With the expansion of the school’s facilities and major investments into renovations, students must determine whether they are comfortable with the allocation of the money they give to attend Rider.
The responsibility that we have at The Rider News is to process the information that surrounds our university and to give it to the community in a way that is easily digestable, while not compromising the principles that constitute responsible journalism.
The challenges our student journalists face are not unlike the challenges that journalists around the world confront. An increased skepticism and lack of trust in the media permeates nearly everywhere, including Rider. Rather than shy from the pressures, our student journalists will use the circumstances to hone their already impressive professional skills and deliver news that proves valuable and reliable.
On a grander note, I would encourage people to use our publication as a way to voice their concerns, share their stories and hold their university accountable.
More than anything else, I want our community to know that our student journalists take their jobs remarkably seriously, to make sure that the news that gets to you, our readers, is as interesting, in-depth and authentic as possible.
Because we believe in our community.
Stephen Neukam
political science
