At the Clerk, our editorial team works hard to create a platform for healthy discourse at Haverford College. We accept opinion pieces that are approximately 600-900 words and take a stance on a topic that you find important and want to discuss with the Haverford community.
We do not publish anonymous opinions per AP journalistic practice guidelines. There are many reasons for this policy. First, the Clerk believes in freedom of speech for all students on campus and does not think this instructs freedom from consequences. If students believe their view is unpopular, we invite them to enter into good faith conversation—not faceless criticism. Additionally, we believe the Clerk editorial staff should not have to compromise their roles as editors with the respect and concern they feel for their peers. When an opinion piece could harm other community members, it is imperative to our work that we do not let that happen without accountability.
We exclusively consider opinion pieces authored by current Haverford students. However, exceptions may be made for submissions from Haverford administrators, which will be evaluated individually by our editorial team.
At the editorial staff’s discretion, we will not publish low-quality, disingenuous, or blatantly false opinion pieces. We will also not published slurs in full, but will on a case-by-case basis evaluate whether to use censored versions.
All opinion pieces published in The Clerk represent the views and ideas of the author.
To submit an opinion, contact Cade Fanning, the opinion editor, at cfanning@haverford.edu.