Muckraker Informs Campus, Intending to Open Dialogue

To the Editors:

I am writing to announce an exciting new journalistic venture, The Muckraker, a monthly publication of investigative reporting.
Many of you may have had the opportunity to pick up a copy of the publication. Because of a funding shortfall, we were not able to print more than a thousand copies, and we thought it would be prudent to make this announcement via the Review to the greater Oberlin community, including its alumnae. Concurrently, we have sent letters to each of the members of Oberlin College’s Board of Trustees, alerting them to our work.
To mitigate the shortage of available copies, we have set up a website, www.themuckraker.com, where the publication is available in a form that can be downloaded and printed. The Muckraker seeks to augment already existing Oberlin periodicals, including the Review and The Grape, by providing a forum for lengthier investigative reporting.
In our first issue, our lead story focused on sexual assault, revealing that Oberlin has a higher incidence of reported sexual assault than many of our peer institutions. We spoke with scores of concerned individuals, which led us to find a web of problems that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Next month, we plan to engage a comprehensive look at the role of the College in the city of Oberlin and its effects on housing and the economy. We’ve also caught leads on several other promising stories, also large in scope, which will likely set the community afire once again, perhaps even more than the highly polarizing issue of sexual assault.
We believe than any institution of higher education must be held accountable to its students. The College’s Board of Trustees cannot provide day-to-day oversight over College policies, procedures and practices, and we, as students, must be vigilant. We are not, as you might be led to believe, “after” the College or its administrators. Rather, we are “after” the truth, to expose injustice and immorality. We seek greater transparency with regard to College activities. In the long run, silence and muted communication benefit no one.
Just as importantly, however, we will not be unduly acrimonious. There is a tendency of Oberlin students to whine and complain; every affront to them is by its very nature, an injustice. We look to address broader systemic problems, not to substantiate individual vendettas. And our editorials will always be constructive, even if they are critical.
With facts in hand, students, faculty and staff can better engage the issues important to them. The level of public discourse, often poisoned by rumor and indirect communication, should rise. At least that is our hope.

–John Byrne
College junior
Editor, The Muckraker