When is national news local?

We treat the front page of the Indiana Daily Student as a coveted spot for which editors and writers must compete. The front page stories are the first stories you see, and subsequently we consider them the most immediate and most interesting stories in the newspaper. And without fail, every semester one of the most hotly contested issues among IDS staff members is the appropriateness of putting national and world news on the front page of a college newspaper.\nOur newsroom has opinions about this issue ranging across the spectrum. We have the purists, who believe no story outside Indiana deserves to be featured prominently on the front page without some centralized local tie-in. We also have internationalists, who believe big national and global news can stand by itself and trump even big campus news for the front page. And then there's everyone in between.\nThere is no question in the minds of the most senior editors that the IDS should include global news in our newspaper. We provide an inside Nation & World section specifically tailored to address these concerns. \nAs a team, Editor in Chief Adam Aasen, Managing Editor Mallory Simon and I have advocated a straightforward middle ground. And during a semester where the largest breaking news so far has been national and global stories, we believe we have pursued the best strategy in delivering that big news to the readers.\nFor global stories, we push our writers to discover local angles. We found and told the stories of students who have families displaced from the thrashing Katrina gave the Gulf Coast. We profiled the students who have transferred to IU for a semester after their Louisiana universities were submersed and ruined. Craig Bradley and Joseph Hoffmann, two IU law professors, have been valuable sources for us during the transition of the Supreme Court. These stories are often accompanied by reports we receive from The Associated Press.\nAlso, we do not wish to ignore the news interests of our campus's large international population. We pursued stories in which students responded to Israel's historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Joanna Borns, the assistant opinion editor, wrote a localization in Monday's newspaper of the earthquake that struck Pakistan and India. We attempt to balance these stories with local coverage that affects our readership on this campus.\nOur coverage of global issues also helps fulfill our mission as a learning lab for aspiring journalists. During the fall of 2004, editors and writers agreed the local and national elections deserved not only prominent placement in our newspaper, but warranted the opportunity to give student-journalists the chance to gain real-world experience at large news events, such as the national Party conventions in New York City and Boston.\nWe are continually asking ourselves the two essential questions of news judgment: Is this something our readers want to know, and is this something our readers need to know? For many students, the IDS remains their only consistent source of news, a responsibility we do not take for granted. We believe strongly in our duty to report the news, on any level, that affects your lives and the world you live in.