Editorial: The Vanguard: By the students, for the students

The start of a new academic year marks the beginning of a new relationship with you, our readers. As all good relationships begin simply with an introduction, we would like to take this opportunity to reintroduce you to the Vanguard, Portland State’s student-run newspaper since 1946.

We consider the Vanguard to be a public trust—an institution in place with the sole purpose of serving our readership. Our goal is to provide those who pick up a copy of our paper with the variety and breadth of coverage that they not only deserve, but require to become an involved member of the PSU community.

Our role as a part of the free press is to serve our readers, and we are here to do just that.

We are here to inform you.

You can count on the Vanguard to provide informative, relevant and enlightening content that you will find useful and significant. No other publication focuses on the PSU community and its connection to the surrounding area as this publication can and does.

We are here to aid the public discussion.

By providing you with diversity of thought and perspective in our opinion section, we strive to fuel public discourse. We aim to present you with critical analysis of the news, differing and challenging views and new ways to consider the events and issues that affect your life. The Vanguard strives to be a marketplace of ideas balanced with a responsibility to remain true to journalistic ethics and values.

We are here to entertain and enlighten you.

The Vanguard aspires to bring its readers closer to the eclectic and vibrant arts and cultural world of Portland. From music to sports and everything in between, our city offers a number of activities, events and communities in which to participate. Within our pages you can find a direct line to the arts and your distinctive interests.

We are here to protect you.

Our publication is obligated to, in the words of Finley Peter Dunne, “comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.” We will serve as a check on those in power, and provide those without a voice the platform to be heard. We will do our utmost to combat misinformation and corruption.

We need you.

To accomplish these tasks and best serve you, we require your feedback. It can come in myriad forms, be it letters to the editor, online comments or news tips slipped under our door, but it must come. By providing your feedback, you not only engage in a dialogue with fellow readers, but you can also help guide our coverage.

If you disagree with something we print, let it be known. We welcome your voice and input. As we are serving to hold those in power accountable, we too must be held accountable. Our credibility with you, the reader, is sacrosanct. If our legitimacy is compromised, the truth we seek to report will be overshadowed by doubt and disbelief.

We strive to become the chronicle of events that surround PSU, but it is only accurate when our readers have their thoughts voiced and entered into that ledger of events.

Invest in us. Invest the time to thumb through our pages and absorb what we have to offer. From the newsstand to your hands and to the bottom of your birdcage, we are here for you.