Editorial: A look into the ethics of The Volante
The Volante has been a voice for USD students since 1887 and continues to strive for excellence. Although The Volante has a faculty adviser, all final decisions are made by the entire student staff. It is a student run newspaper that focuses on topics that are pertinent to the USD campus and Vermillion community.
As a journalistic entity we operate under the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics. In this Code of Ethics, it is our duty to “seek truth and report it,” “minimize harm,” “act independently” and “be accountable and transparent.” For us, this means we take responsibility for the accuracy of all work published, we have each article pass an extensive editing process, we provide a news source that is void of promotional wording and we share all necessary information with our readers without bias being present.
These ethical guidelines we follow also apply to the submissions we receive for our opinion section each week. If we believe any of our paper’s guidelines are being jeopardized due to a submission, we hold the right to not publish the content.
The purpose of The Volante’s opinion section is to bring forward differing ideas and viewpoints to a wider audience as well as entertain the community, not to push a certain viewpoint or agenda. We recognize that by publishing certain columns or cartoons, we are making a conscious effort for those opinions to be seen.
Our staff works each week to uphold the ethical obligations set by the SPJ Code of Ethics. While we do choose to include a few opinion columns in our issue each week, we by no means state that the opinions held by our submitted articles are those of our staff or community as a whole.
If at any point in time, you, our readers, find that we aren’t upholding our duties outlined in the SPJ Code of Ethics, we welcome you to send in a formal complaint to the Editor-in-Chief.
The Volante has continued to provide USD and Vermillion with accurate and timely news for roughly 135 years. We wish to remain in good standing with all those we invite to read our paper each week.
