Editorial Policy

The Record welcomes all interested students and readers to attend the staff meetings at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesdays in our office, Paresky 209. At this meeting, please feel free to approach editors with questions about the last week’s issue or ideas for the next week’s issue. Article assignments will be given at this time. If you are unable to make this meeting, story suggestions and scoops can also be sent to williamsrecordEIC@gmail.com.

Due to the relatively small size of our staff, we are unable to cover all events happening on campus in a given week and are often faced with difficult decisions about coverage and content. When deciding how to prioritize stories, we tend to follow a well-known journalistic rule of thumb: A story is newsworthy if it is so important that it does not matter whether it is interesting, or so interesting that it does not matter whether it is important.

As soon as a Record reporter identifies himself or herself, the conversation that follows is considered on the record. Statements on the record cannot be retracted. Open meetings, including student group meetings and public fora, are considered on the record. The Record considers e-mails sent to an open listserv or forwarded from a source part of the public domain. We will make every effort to get in touch with the author of the e-mail before publication but reserve the right to print such messages.

Sources are not able to see an article in which they are quoted before its publication. You may ask to review quotes for accuracy, but the article itself remains private until the Record hits the presses. The Record holds its writers responsible for the truth and balance of their reporting, and allowing sources to directly shape stories would undermine that responsibility.

The editorial is the only article in the newspaper that reflects the opinion of the editorial board. After reviewing all of the articles, we choose one or more issue on which to write. We discuss the issue and come to a conclusion about what the editorial should say, then assign the first draft to a board member. It is then edited and reviewed by the rest of the board.

The Record welcomes op-eds and letters from all members of the community. Editors may also solicit submissions. If your submission is selected for publication, an editor will notify you before it appears in print. No substantive changes are made to submissions without the approval of the contributor. The Record reserves the right to edit submissions for grammar and style. If interested in submitting either an op-ed or a letter, please e-mail the Opinions Editor.

The Record strives for the highest level of accuracy in its reporting, an objective that includes correcting errors when they occur. Please e-mail williamsrecordEIC@gmail.com to report an error or a mistake.