Mike Craig and Carole Lundgren, two DU students, came up with the idea of the alternative newspaper for University of Denver students and plan to publish the first issue at the start of spring quarter.
“We both thought that an additional paper on campus was necessary to try and connect DU students with issues that are affecting them,” said Craig.
“The paper will contain two main sections, one featuring editorials and articles written from a variety of backgrounds and ideologies. The other will be a satire that attempts to connect these issues humorously to the DU student,” said Craig.
Craig hopes to publish every other week.
Right now, the newspaper is funded by a $1,500 grant from the Community Scholars Program.
Future funding has not yet been obtained.
The newspaper has no name yet, but a contest was held for students to submit names. Craig said the name will be announced with the coming of the first issue.
There are no specific positions for staff members or editors or reporters yet, said Craig.
“There are many students working on this paper, too numerous to list them all, and Glenn Fee in particular has been a great faculty resource,” said Craig.
Fee heads the Community Action Program under Campus Life.
When asked about the staff’s background in editing, writing and layout, Craig said he “felt [this question] insulting to our [the staff’s] intelligence.”
“Instead the paper is kind of being organized like a collective; there has been an excellent response by Living Learning Community students to this paper and we have found people to help out in all aspects of this paper’s production,” said Craig.
Craig said he and Lundgren want the newspaper to be similar to an open forum for DU students.
“We do not believe that our paper must remain objective. Instead we wish to provide a wide range of opinions on issues,” said Craig.
“We are hoping to inspire students to not only think about what is going on in the world, but also to be active and involved about issues they are passionate about. Currently, there are limited options for students looking to get involved and communicate with like minded individuals.Our group views this as a serious problem at DU and this is our attempt at remedying it.”
Once the newspaper is under way, Craig said, the newspaper would accept submissions from other students.
“This paper will give a voice to students where they may not have one,” said Craig. “We do not intend on censoring our writers.
Said Craig, “We would like to start an online subscription program where the paper is e-mailed to subscribers in a PDF format.”
“No staff will be paid, this paper is meant to get the DU campus speaking about issues, which we feel should be the true incentive to writing,” said Craig.
