There is a second part as well. The majority of content on this page is not written on a deadline. That means the content can focus on issues — and there are plenty — to make it both analytical and proactive.

Issues come from two places: internal and external. The staff editorial is internal, the letters and columns are, for the most part, external.

With the external guest columnists I look for viewpoints that come from every corner of community. Issues are subject to interpretation. And, as readers, it is crucial to look at as many of those interpretations as possible.

Which brings me to my point: Not all content choices or all opinions will satisfy everyone. For example, guest columnist Mitch Goldsmith wrote an article that was critical of The State News editorial board’s stances on the Coalition Against Sexual Violence.

Though I take issue with some of what was said, I welcomed the critique because it is exactly what this paper needs: an outside dissenting opinion.

Furthermore, that opinion should be in the paper where State News readers can see it. Goldsmith points that the editorial page seeks to uphold the status quo. And yet his column was published in this paper and on the website.

This should be a place of change, and often activists — particularly students — spearhead that activism.

Goldsmith is an activist for a particular group, espousing a certain viewpoint for the potential gain of that group. Even if I was not sympathetic to his cause — and I am — that issue needs a forum; I’m simply the moderator.

Students must have a voice. Readers have a voice. And so do the students who work at this newspaper.

Our masthead reads, “Michigan State University’s independent voice.” In the sense that we are all students, looking at things from a student perspective and advocating for students when applicable, we are a student voice.

That doesn’t mean we never will agree with administrators or that we always will side with what every student thinks. We have been critical of both student groups and MSU.

There are plenty of reasons for people not to like the editorials we’ve written. It isn’t uncommon for people to hate one and love another.

That’s because they are the paper’s “official” opinions — independent of the reader and of the university. That, it seems, is the nature of independence: the freedom to choose.

We are not bound by any one type of thinking simply because one group thinks we should be.

In thinking about that, I would like this page to avoid the trend of espousing one viewpoint while completely ignoring the validity of others.

Even if life would be easier if it fit into nice, neat boxes, we shouldn’t attempt to treat it that way. Next semester, I want to be in community meetings with people to better understand their viewpoints without a precipitating event.

However, we won’t pick up on everything. And in those cases, we should be called out. Even better, come talk to us. It is one thing to question our motives and bristle at our opinions, but it’s another to actually come here and talk.

I can think of at least four groups — ASMSU, the Council of Graduate Students, MSU Beyond Coal, and members of the city of East Lansing government — who actually took the time to explain their positions.

During the election, the Democratic MSU Board of Trustees candidates took time to sit down and talk with us and help illuminate at least some of what the board was thinking.

That doesn’t mean we saw eye to eye, but it helped us see issues in a new light.

We need dialogue from and with the MSU community to truly be effective. We are students from all types of backgrounds and we try to speak from those experiences. But when that is perceived as not being enough, come and tell us.

David Barker is the State News opinion editor. Reach him at barkerd@msu.edu.