How many times have you heard the dreaded F-word today? How many times, and in what context, have you said it?

If you’re like most college kids, and if you’re reading this anytime after about noon or so, you’ve probably experienced some pretty profane language by this point in the average day, whether it be from the mouth of your professor, your peer or yourself.

Indeed, F-bombs have become common discourse on today’s college campus, so much so that some universities print the word in their newspapers.

On Sept. 21, J. David McSwane, editor-in-chief of CSU’s Rocky Mountain Collegian, published a one line editorial in the student newspaper: “Taser this… F*@$ BUSH.” Only instead of filling in the word with symbols and characters like above, the editors kept the word intact, in all caps, and in a large banner across the top of the editorial page.

Since then, McSwane and his comment have been the focal point of a national media frenzy. Many advertisers pulled their funds from the newspaper, and CSU students protested the issue-some were for the editorial, some were against it. The 20-year-old journalism major cited the First Amendment in his defense, saying that his language and his dissent were protected by the clauses outlining freedom of speech and freedom of press. On Thursday, the university’s Board of Student Communications voted to let McSwane keep his job, though the board formally scolded him for being “unethical and unprofessional.”

But unethical and unprofessional in what context? After all, in college, ethics and professionalism may be part of the curriculum but are rarely part of daily life. Students often go to class in sweats, without showering beforehand, and engage in discussions there-both with other students and with professors-that are often vulgar and profane. In short, college is a profane place, and that should provide an important context to the story of McSwane.

His newspaper’s comment pertained to the incident on Sept. 17 at the University of Florida in which a student was shocked with a Taser while trying to ask Sen. John Kerry a question. In the same issue, the front-page story, penned by McSwane, discussed violations of free speech in light of that incident.

In this context, it is clear that McSwane saw a college peer violently silenced for asking a question, and he decided to act. “We did not do this to capture headlines,” McSwane commented last week. “We did this to spark a discussion about free speech.”

And if you still think McSwane is a run-of-the-mill leftist college wannabe journalist out to make waves (as many news stories since the now infamous editorial have made him out to be), you’re mistaken. Along with having work published in Denver Westword while still in high school, he has won several awards for his journalistic endeavors, including a prestigious Peabody Award while working as a paid investigative producer at Denver’s Channel 4 news. His editorial was not a mistake; rather, it was carefully thought out and executed to make an impact on a specific target audience.

And you know what? He did make an impact, and he did spark a discussion. Any college journalist can only hope to do the same. Political campus protests aside, the language became a problem really only when the story caught on nationally. When that happened, McSwane’s editorial lost its collegiate context and offended many never meant to hear it.

The whole purpose of curse words is to create a reaction in the mind of the reader or listener, and these words have been set aside by our society for just that purpose. McSwane wanted to create a reaction, and we need not blame him for using the language that society put aside to do just that, especially in a college environment rife with such language.

To make an impact on college readers, you have to speak to that audience. And if you want to make a big impact, you might have to resort to the rough language that is emotional enough, relevant enough, and familiar enough to connect with them. McSwane’s editorial just proves that using coarse language to make a point works, and there’s plenty of points to be made out there.

In this case, a promising young journalist had to use bad language to make a good point.