If you are reading this column, it means you are holding the 95th consecutive Beacon printed since the paper returned to after a brief hiatus a little more than seven and a half years ago. The Beacon has seen over 100 student contributors participate in journalism as writers, designers, photographers, illustrators and sales representatives. You are also holding a document that, while ink on paper, is a living, breathing entity that morphs into the desires of the students working on it at any given time.

From the first paper of this current run, our writers and the managing editors of the opinion and editorial pages have been asked to define the voice and vision of the paper. At times, they have been asked to meditate on what their conviction are, as individuals and as contributing members of a college newspaper.

While the role of the editorial staff has changed over the years, one aspect remains consistent: all the writers have been encouraged and supported in speaking from a position of an engaged and active participant, with the opportunity to voice how society, culture, politics, economics, religion, and spirituality are shaped.

This past week, President Trump addressed both houses of Congress. The Beacon used this as an opportunity to dedicate the op-ed pages to responses composed by current and past Beacon writers. The goal of the idea was to not only highlight the range of thought that has blessed these pages, but to engage the writers in a greater discourse regarding the current administration’s policy intents.

Ninety-five Beacons ago the headline on the front page read, “We Are the Change We Seek.” That headline, when read as a statement, speaks to the point of being actively involved in the process of molding and shaping not only our society, but ourselves.

However, change should not happen for its own sake. It should be predicated upon responding accordingly to the principal variables that drive one’s self, as well as public policy. To stand on a position without modifying one’s stance while the variables demand a shift is dogma, and to continually change just to change seems chaotic.

While only a handful of former Beacon writers participated in this exercise, there is comfort in knowing that many are doing the work to develop a set of discerning eyes, wonderful analytical minds, and an understanding of what it means to take a position that stands for the betterment of those who are disenfranchised or marginalized.

Every one of you has concerns, concerns that are of utmost importance to you. Concerns such as the environment, scientific inquiry, racial relationships, culture, economics, gender and  sexual identity, physical- and mental-health access, education, and spirituality. Are you willing to take a stand?

By Chuck Ott