The Hatchet-Student Association debate is Tuesday night at Jack Morton Auditorium. It is an effort between The Hatchet and the SA, an effort we began just last year. David Ceasar, the senior editor who is in charge of campus outreach, organized the event along with SA President Nicole Capp and others.

The Hatchet, as an independent student newspaper, does not cooperate with University groups too often but this is an instance where there is no downside. We have the opportunity to give candidates a chance to speak and students an opportunity to listen. We are very careful to maintain our independence, which was given to us by the University in 1993. But throughout my time at The Hatchet we have done things with the University and student groups.

One example was in 2006. I was the sports editor and covered the men’s basketball team. At that time, we made a conscious decision to own coverage of the basketball team. We wanted every story first, which wasn’t an easy task because The Washington Post and the Washington Times covered the team daily. Also, the Wall Street Journal followed the team for the year for a feature. But we attended every game and when it became clear that it would be one of the best years in University history, some administrators approached us and asked if we would be interested in producing a magazine for the University. GW paid and we retained editorial independence and oversight. It turned out to be a great product, for which we won a few awards.

The debate is something slightly different. But on the same token, just because we organized it with the group does not affect our coverage of campus politics in any way. Anyway, enough insider baseball. Please come to the debate. It’ll be a lot of fun.