THANK you, Brett Meeks, for using your Life section column space to celebrate the life of Johnny Cash. Had you not done so, readers of The Cavalier Daily might not have had a chance to read words reflecting on the Man in Black's passing. Of course, several media outlets covered Cash's death, but as the University's primary source of news, the CD should have carried articles on the deaths of Cash and TV star John Ritter, who both died too late to be included in Friday, Sept. 12's issue. We can certainly argue that the impact each man had on the University itself may be minimal (though this writer sings Cash and the "Three's Company" theme song perhaps a bit more than most), but Cash and Ritter were both national figures whose deaths the CD should have reported in its Monday Nation & World pages.
The Cavalier Daily practiced what it preached in Thursday's lead editorial. Chastising University administrators for not deciding to cancel classes before Hurricane Isabel's effects were felt all over Virginia Thursday, the CD declared that it would not be producing an issue for Friday. It's disappointing whenever a publication has to cancel production, but as a student paper, the CD has to put student safety first. As it turned out, Isabel definitely posed some danger to students and the storm's resulting power outages made it tough to put out a paper. It likely was a difficult decision, but an understandable one.
Especially with multiple articles and info boxes in Thursday's issue, the CD's coverage of the hurricane prior to its arrival was quite beneficial and helpful for students. With a days-in-development story such as Isabel, it can get tedious to report the nothings (preparers preparing) leading up to the something (hurricane hits!). The CD, with short preview and long day-of articles, avoided this pitfall. (My only gripe was a Life Odds & Ends piece on a Lawn screening of "Old School," which ran on Thursday. It failed to mention the likely cancellation and/or rescheduling of the event that the weather forecasters were right.)
An editor's note and lead editorial Tuesday informed readers that opinion staff members Anthony Dick and Joe Schilling were as students part of the Individual Rights Coalition, a group that made its presence known on the Lawn Monday. Both mentioned that neither Dick nor Schilling would be editing or opining on the issues with which the IRC concerns itself. The CD assured its readers that such separation will prevent a potential conflict of interest. Maintaining that policy is imperative. Students are likely to join multiple groups on Grounds, of which the CD is one. The problem comes when a student staffer uses the CD to further the missions of other organizations of which they are members. In higher positions of the paper, especially the Managing Board, staff generally must choose between organizations. The Cav Daily stated that Dick, an opinion editor, will neither write nor edit issues relating to the IRC. If the CD can keep that separation up, the policy should work effectively.
As ombudsman, I want to be critical, but not obnoxiously nit-picky. This week, however, I want to clarify the use of the hyphen. It may not be the most exciting stuff, folks, but after having read last week's papers, I feel the need to educate.Take, for instance, Monday's front page. Two below-the-fold articles demonstrated contrasting uses of the punctuation mark in their headlines and opening sentences: "16 year old allegedly raped at W&M party" and "Pay-to-print draws fire from students." When you use compound modifiers, you hyphenate the words to demonstrate that the phrase is adjectival. (This is in accordance with Associate Press style.) The latter headline (whose subject, "policy," is inferred) is correct. The article on the alleged rape opened "A 16-year-old girl announced
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