Has The Recorder Tarnished Your Degree?

Shawn Ingraham

Has The Recorder Tarnished Your Degree?

Recently CCSU has caught the attention of the press. Usually the press’s attention comes from two sources; Athletics or reactions to The Recorder’s latest controversial publication. You may have noticed that all of the reports regarding The Recorder are negative. What you may not have considered is how the negative publicity affects the reputation and legitimacy of the university and the degrees we are all working hard to receive. Some of the words used in the reports about The Recorder are racist, homophobic, and sexist. These words become synonymous not only to The Recorder but also CCSU. Imagine sitting in a job interview and your possible new employer is thinking CCSU is a university of “racism,” “homophobia,” and “sexism,” what are your chances of getting hired over a student from a better reputable school?

Recently people been quoted by NBC 30 describing the paper as “disturbing” and in “poor taste.” Others have described the university as having a “poor quality of leadership.” Chancellor of the CSU system David Carter has described the paper as having “a stunning lack of sensitivity and awareness.” WTNH has quoted our own students describing the newspaper by stating “It's ridiculous, it's offensive, it's annoying, it's everything.” Another student said: “This is a college environment, this isn't high school. You have to grow up and become more mature because this isn't little kid stuff any more.” A professor has even been quoted by WTNH questioning the integrity of the university leadership: "[Miller] has not responded to anyone in this community. Is this a leader? Is this a person that should be leading this university?"

That’s just local news; our university has negatively caught the attention of the entire country. The New York Times quoted a professor asking for “systematic changes to create a welcoming environment.” Shouldn’t a welcoming environment automatically be present at CCSU? Because of the actions taken by The Recorder staff our campus is being portrayed as an unwelcoming, ridiculous, annoying, immature environment which lacks appropriate leadership. This was not the type of descriptions I looked for while choosing a college my senior year in high school or the type of colleges employers like to hire from.

As members of the CCSU student body The Recorder is our paper, which represents us and should be used to help promote a positive reputation of ourselves as intellectuals. The Recorder staff has made attempts at this but it goes unnoticed because the quality journalism is over shadowed by the many blatant incidents where a few members have disregarded proper journalistic ethics and tainted the newspaper’s and university’s reputation. This reputation affects us all as future CCSU graduates.