Another year at Carolina is upon us! With it comes a number of annual traditions: FallFest, drinking from the Old Well and the latest in the seemingly unending string of construction projects around Lenoir. And, of course, the FDOC—“First Day of Classes” for the uninitiated—issue of The Daily Tar Heel. It’s your preview of what’s to come from the DTH this year, a chance for us to show the directions we’re hoping to take and tell you our goals for the year.
I’m excited to serve as the opinion editor for the coming school year, and along with Assistant Opinion Editor Ramishah Maruf, the editorial board and columnists, I’m going to work my hardest to ensure the opinion page continues to reach the high bar set by opinion pages past.
The opinion section of The Daily Tar Heel has a long history of being the page of the community, a place where writers reflect on the issues important to Chapel Hill and where community members can voice their thoughts through letters to the editor and guest columns. It’s an important tradition to uphold, especially in our current political climate, where far too often discourse is marked by incivility and a refusal to listen to the other side.
It is my hope that the debates playing out in the public forum will appear in the opinion section, and that we will help elevate them by providing thoughtful commentary from diverse points of view. The pieces we run will, with luck, bring readers into contact with perspectives they hadn’t previously considered.
There is still room for more people on the opinion desk, and if you think your worldview is underrepresented at The Daily Tar Heel, I’d like to encourage you to apply. As Ramishah notes in her article today, diversity is absolutely necessary to an opinion page that hopes to reflect the community it serves. We need people of all backgrounds and ideologies in order to best accomplish our mission.
Another goal of the opinion desk this year is to focus on local issues. There are a plethora of outlets from which you can get national news and opinions on it. With such a large amount of attention paid to national current events, local news doesn’t receive as much attention as it deserves. It’s easy to forget what occurs in our local community can have as much impact on our lives as anything you read about in a national outlet.
I look forward to serving the Carolina community this year, and hope you’ll engage with this page. Please, feel free to reach out to Ramishah and me and any other member of the opinion desk at opinion@dailytarheel.com.
