As a former editor and staff member of the Daily, I first want to say that I sympathize with Andrea Hauser and the rest of the editorial staff. It’s never fun to make the unpopular decisions, even if you believe they’re in the best interest of the newspaper.

But it should be noted that while the Daily doesn’t have an official policy on a matter like this, it does have a long-standing precedent of giving staffers second chances. It does this because it is primarily a learning lab for journalism students. While Daily staffers should strive to put out a professional-quality newspaper every day, time constraints, a relatively small staff and a lack of experience clearly compound this, even though staffers do their best.

When I was at the Daily, there were incidents of plagiarism, fabrication and the like, far greater offenses than posing for Toons (and I stress these offenses were the rare exception rather than the rule). Staffers in every situation I can recall were given second chances because their editors recognized it’s better to make a potentially career-harming mistake at the student paper than at a professional internship or a first real job. In plain English, if you absolutely have to make a mistake or a bad judgment call, now is the time when it’s not OK, but at least passable.

That’s the reason journalism students work there: To get the experience (and practice) they will need in the real world. Firing three key editors, especially considering that two of them seem to co-write half the news articles in the Daily, is unusually harsh, especially for said offense. It’s important to remember that although the Daily isn’t up to the standards of most professional newspapers, there are real lives and careers-in-the-making involved.

Kate Kompas

Senior

Journalism and mass communication