Sam Landstra—Co-Chief Editor

I’m a believer in tradition.

Every New Year’s Eve, my family and I reflect on the past year over Chinese takeout. We talk about our favorite months, movies, and whatever else we want to remember from the previous twelve months (mine were August and Dune, respectively). It’s our tradition, and I wouldn’t ever think about making different dinner plans on New Year’s Eve. That would ruin the tradition, obviously. 

It’s also my family’s tradition to make resolutions for the coming year. For example, my dad resolved to learn how to play guitar, and I resolved to get my work published in a non-Dordt publication (AKA: get a job).

I’m sharing these resolutions because I want to keep myself accountable. I also want to see my dad play guitar. I think that’d be pretty cool for him.

I’ve got resolutions for The Diamond too. This semester, we’re striving to improve upon our role as a reliable, credible voice of Dordt University’s student body.

I’d like to reflect on how The Diamond’s writers continued in this tradition last semester.

In the Nov. 5 issue, we provided a factual account of the masked men, window peeper, and stalker who infringed upon the safety of our campus. “Multiple on-campus incidents bring student safety into question” gave students a platform to raise concerns about university policy and campus safety.

Throughout the semester, we reported on our university’s handling of the pandemic and documented COVID-19 case counts and vaccination rates within the student body.

Also, our writers took their notepads into the Northwest Iowa community. They said goodbye to donut runs at the Dutch Bakery and said hello to Vero’s Taco Truck, Kapper Hair Salon, and more.

And, in the opinion section, The Diamond commented on public discourse and journalism in “It’s how you say it” and “The op-ed is dead.”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The Diamond is by students and for students. And last semester, our student writers, copyeditors, layout editors, and website managers impacted their community with real, legitimate journalism.

We made mistakes too. We’re students, after all, learning how to flex our journalism muscles with each interview and article. 

Regardless, those mistakes are my responsibility to address and correct. At times, our articles were underreported and misinformed. At times, our coverage of COVID-19 was not becoming of a scientifically based, Christlike response to the pandemic. You, readers of The Diamond, told us when we were wrong. We’re sorry for when we haven’t delivered. We’ll do better, and we hope you’ll continue to tell us when we don’t (kindly, please).

We’re aiming to establish a tradition of community-oriented, student-driven journalism at The Diamond, and hope you’ll read our work in the coming year.

Thank you.