Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.
As someone who has predominately worked on an opinion desk for just about seven years, I have always found it to be the best outlet for me to get out all of my frustrations and thoughts. And that even played a large role in my decision to go to Colorado State University in the first place.
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In case you never read my description for The Collegian or don’t remember it, one of the biggest things I wanted to implement into the opinion desk when I took over as editor was a diverse and broad range of student voices. Oftentimes, this means publishing and editing content I know could cause controversy or not align with the vast majority of our student population.
But that is the beauty of the opinion desk. It gives an opportunity for those voices to be shared and for people’s voices to be published for all to read, despite the fact that we are such a large university.
“Being a part of the opinion desk has created a great opportunity for me to develop and learn how to use my voice as well as help others share their voices. In our journalism classes, it is often hard for us to be able to flex our opinion writing skills without being told the biases that exist within a piece need to be removed.”
As writers, we have an opportunity to speak out regarding whatever topic we feel most needs to be addressed, whether that is our current thoughts on our political climate, speaking out against the university, a sex column for our avid readers or even a satirical piece just to mix it up a bit. There is always a reason for the piece to be published, and that reason is that we are students who have been given a voice in the world.
The opportunity for a writer of this independent college publication to be given a voice, no matter the topic, is limitless — as long as they can put their fingers on a keyboard and write. But this isn’t limited to just those who work for us. There is an opportunity provided by our publication to any campus community member through the submission of a letter to the editor.
The idea of writing a piece that is published online for anyone to see may be an intimidating task. As someone who started writing for a small, local paper that was only circulated in the San Luis Valley, it was intimidating to know that my work would be published on the internet for anyone to see. It wasn’t until my first year with The Collegian was up that I finally began to understand the importance and rare opportunity I had as a journalist with this specific publication.
Being a part of the opinion desk has created a great opportunity for me to develop and learn how to use my voice as well as help others share their voice. In our journalism classes, it is often hard for us to flex our opinion writing skills without being told the biases that exist within a piece need to be removed.
Therefore, opinion desks create the utmost amount of importance for us as students to begin to find that we do in fact have a voice, story or opinion that needs to be shared. And through these opportunities, we can gain more opportunities to find our truest selves, no matter who we are.
Reach Dominique Lopez at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @caffeinateddee6.
