COMMENT POLICY: As strong supporters of free expression, The Criterion respects your right to post comments. However, we reserve the right to remove any comment, for any reason. Here are some guidelines

1. Keep it clean. No cursing. If you wouldn’t say it to your grandmother, don’t say it here.

2. Don’t personally attack other commenters, writers, or subjects in the story. There’s a big difference between disagreeing and name calling.

3. Any content that is libelous.

The Criterion is a student run newspaper that prints weekly and has been published for nearly 80 years. It’s purpose is tri-fold: to provide a hand’s-on educational experience for student journalists, to provide the campus with a medium for news information, and to give the students of Colorado Mesa University a voice. The Criterion’s main purpose is to teach any and all students who want to learn about and develop skills in the field of journalism.

The following description of our staff was found in a framed document that had been written in October, 1963 that was titled as the “Statement of Philosophy, Policies, and Staff Organization of The Criterion.”

I. Criterion Tradition

For quite a while, the Criterion has been the official student newspaper of then Mesa State College, now Colorado Mesa University. Through these years, the publication has reflected the “Maverick” image, that of spontaneity, experimentation, creativity, and non-conformity. Some of the attempts at experimentation might well be judged as failures, but most have proven refreshing.

The existence of such a character, however, has not been regarded as an excuse for poor English, poor spelling, or inadequate typography. Staff members have generally recognized that the right to be original stems from mastery of established standards. The individuality of the paper has emerged withing the frame work of such journalistic ideals as proper news style, accuracy in reporting, good taste, careful layout and quality art.

It tends to incorporate two ideas attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: “He who would be a man must be a non-conformist,” and “It is under limitations that the master reveals himself.”

The document pictured above, is nine pages in length and details the rights, rules and responsibilities of anyone who calls himself a member of the Criterion staff.

As the Editor in Chief of the Criterion, I, Matt Meyer, have included some portions of this document so that readers may more fully understand the Criterion, its history, and its philosophy.

II. Its Present Philosophy

Article A. The Criterion is a student newspaper. It is not an organ of the administration, the faculty, the political parties, the religious communities, the city, county, or state. While it may serve the interests of any or all of these latter mentioned, it may not do so in violation of its primary role.

Article H. The Criterion is dedicated to the establishment of truth.

III. Policies

Article M. The staff will continually encourage creative talents, constructive thought, good humor in good taste, breadth of intellectual activity, and cultural exploration. It will further exhibit a general loyalty to the college, albeit sometimes a critical and thoughtful loyalty.

The Criterion was started by and for students in 1931. Here is one of the very first issues dated Dec. 5, 1931.