In the wake of an election where the media was rocked by an election they had missed, I’m determined to do it right.

There’s quite a few reasons why I believe my media colleagues and I were shocked on election night, as Wisconsin made it personal by turning the electoral college over to a president of whom we had convinced ourselves would never resonate with the American people – one of the biggest is that we didn’t do enough talking to the American people.

Being the lead political reporter on a college campus, that responsibility is intensified. I have a unique ability to reach the voices of voters that my counterparts reporting from our major metropolitan areas don’t quite have the same
access to.

It’s why you see the front page that you do – dedicated to talking about the stories of the people who walk this campus.

However, I can only tell the stories of the people who are willing to have their voices heard.

I contacted a variety of campus leaders for the story – almost three dozen in total, who represented a variety different ideologies on campus. I heard back from a third, with many who either expressed more liberal views or respectively declined to show their support for either candidate. It was those who stereotypically identify with conservative values, or even politics in general, who declined to comment at a higher rate. Because of a lack of their voices, I can acknowledge to some, it reads as a sob story for Hillary Clinton.

As someone who prides herself on being an objective reporter, I’m proud of the 40+ hours of work I put into the story, but yet it serves as a sign that I still have a lot of work to do in order to finish representing the stories of all of our students.

So, an invitation: I want to continue the story past this week. One story in one edition isn’t enough to properly reflect all of campus. If you supported conservative values in this election, liberal values or have strong feelings in general, let’s make a connection (email me at [email protected].) I want your voices to be heard too – let’s make it happen.