Our top priority at The Scarlet & Black is to provide accurate and thorough coverage to our audience, which encompasses Grinnell College students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the wider Grinnell community. We rely on our audience to hold us accountable to this mission. 

We attempt to provide accountability and transparency to our audience on which stories we choose to publish, and why. Each of our 32-person staff comes from a different background, which they carry throughout their work. 

We also hold office hours each weekday from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Spencer Grill. Students, community members, faculty and staff are welcome to attend and discuss our past coverage or provide a tip for future stories. 

Although we often hear from our readership regarding stories that we have published, we also publish contributed content. We encourage our readers to submit Letters to the Editor, which are typically 200 to 300 word pieces addressing issues relevant to the Grinnell community or S&B coverage. Additionally, we welcome contributed Op-Eds, which are generally longer-form articles. 

This service has been underutilized in the past. Although the Opinions section of our paper has always been open to everyone, our goal for the paper is to encourage our readership to take advantage of it in a way that has not been done before. Contributed content allows The Scarlet & Black to truly represent our audience by hearing their voices directly. Although we always strive to provide accurate and comprehensive coverage, contributed content allows for a wider range of opinions than those we can capture through our interviewees. 

Prior to 2020, The Scarlet & Black frequently published Letters to the Editor and Op-Eds from contributors. Since then, this number has gone down significantly. This time has also been characterized by an increase in private discourse regarding free speech on campus. We hope that students feel comfortable expressing the full range of their perspectives, experiences and opinions on campus, but S&B staff have been privy to discussions where some students indicate this is not the case. 

As journalists, free speech is the foundation of our work. We at The Scarlet & Black want students to feel comfortable publicly expressing their opinions in an attempt to fuel dialogue on campus. When The Scarlet & Black publishes contributed content, we follow our ethics policy, which is outlined on our website, to ensure our newspaper meets the highest standard of ethical journalism. Any questions about our ethics policy or this editorial can be directed to newspapr@grinnell.edu. 

We acknowledge that this is not a complete solution to the problem. An ability to partake in honest dialogue without fear of external judgment or controversy requires both a willingness of some to speak their minds, and of others to listen and respond in good faith. However, we hope that our platform will continue to provide an opportunity for our audience to make their voices heard.