Dear Megan,
Thank you for reading The Critograph and for reaching out to the staff with your concerns. Without expression from the student body, we as a newspaper are unable to continue growing forward and set a precedent and reputation of what the Critograph represents. Here at the Critograph we believe that all students – regardless of their faith or lack thereof – should be able to express what they believe in and share those beliefs freely with the student body.
Throughout its existence, the Critograph has been a space for any and all students to write about their faith. This includes a Wiccan column that has been active with the Critograph for several years. We work to make sure that articles are still inclusive and never work to harm the lives or wellbeing of others. In fact, we open the newspaper and welcome students of other faith practices to write about what they believe in as well.
Before being posted, articles of all kinds go through multiple people to be edited and approved. Just like you, the editors of articles have varying views on religion and are all diverse in their own ways as well. This editing process includes the weekly Faith’s Faith article that you mentioned in your letter. Faith did not allude to harming any marginalized individuals through her article or use any harmful, aggressive language. Even after rereading the article after receiving your letter, we still found no harmful or offensive language within the article.
However, we do agree that the University of Lynchburg should be a champion for diversity and inclusion, and as a paper we strive to uphold President Alison’s pillar of diversity by including articles about the Christian faith because that is what a student wanted to express. We understand that there are many other faith practices outside of Christianity and if students would like to write about those, they are more than welcome to.
The Critograph is an inclusive space for all students and everyone is welcome here. We strive to promote equality and we will continue to put forth our best effort to minimize the promotion of hate on campus. We would implore you to please reread the article, and our email is always open for you to point out specifics that you found hateful in the article.
Thank you once again for sharing your voice and your opinion with the Critograph. We welcome free speech and are open to hearing what our fellow Hornets have to say.
Thank you,
The Critograph Editorial Team