Truthfully, how many of you read the ASLC Notes, the weekly column that runs to the right of this editorial?
In an effort to streamline the Review and alleviate layout congestion on page two, we have decided the ASLC Notes could potentially be cut or at least moved to a different page.
We would not be making this decision lightly. Students may not notice, but page two has become cramped, resulting in a not-so-clean layout. At the same time, written-content length is being reduced in an effort to conform to this available space.
We admit this was caused, in part, by our recent decision to reduce the newspaper from 16 pages to 12. That was a difficult decision, but we feel we made the right choice. Now, other changes are sure to follow. Case in point: the decision to remove or transfer ASLC Notes from page two.
The ASLC Notes were first printed Sept. 8, 1995, under heavy pressure from then-ASLC President Devon Frenchko.
Frenchko was what you could call “politically inclined” and generally believed that the Review was his personal newspaper. He saw fit to throw his opinion into the mix. Then-editor in chief Jennifer Jones refused to allow it — a decision we wholeheartedly agree with. No government has the right to demand that newspapers reflect its opinion.
Jones and Frenchko instead reached a compromise of sorts: Frenchko could have space on one of the opinion pages (away from the news pages), but ASLC would have to purchase it. Hello, ASLC Notes.
However, in reviewing the first ASLC Notes, it is obvious that the notes were far different from what they are today. The notes detailed actual ASLC happenings, within Senate and within Cabinet, not just what the Linfield Activities Board was sponsoring that week.
In the original ASLC Notes, Frenchko said that he wanted to keep students aware of what was going on with ASLC Cabinet.
“We are your representatives, and we are accountable to you, so I will use this as a way to report to you and field ideas back to us,” he wrote.
The ASLC Notes of today hold no such standing. It serves as advertising for ASLC, which has no place on the op-ed page. As ASLC pays for this space, we believe the notes should run as an advertisement inside the paper. Paid space of any kind has no place on the editorial page of any newspaper.
But, more importantly, what do you, the students, think? Do you read it? Let us know by writing a letter, sending an e-mail or leaving a comment on the Web site.

–The Review Editorial Board