Jessica Lee Associate Editor

While you may have noticed many changes this semester in the Wildcat, something that might not have caught your attention is the addition of a new position at the paper.

I am the associate editor, a.k.a. the reader advocate, and my job is to listen to your concerns.

In the past few months, the Wildcat has been planning a series of three focus forums where editors are available to sit down eye-to-eye with a group of concerned readers and talk about the Wildcat. We want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly. Every decision that is made at the Wildcat is made with our readers in mind. We are here to provide information.

Last week, the first forum took place with members of the greek community. For nearly an hour, students involved with fraternities and sororities raised concerns about the Wildcat's coverage of greek issues.

The most pressing issue concerned how our editors decide what news will make it into the paper. Some members of the greek community said they believed the Wildcat only chooses to cover negative issues such as party busts and hazing incidents, but rarely told the story of all the good it does.

"We deem events newsworthy according to specific criteria. These include timeliness, the number of people the event affects, the potential level of reader interest, the amount of space available in the paper and if the event was something unusual or unique," said Keren G. Raz, our news editor.

The first reason we don't cover most philanthropies is that there are literally too many to report for the limited amount of space in the Wildcat. Second, aiding the community and funding charities are part of the role of most greek organizations.

Although it is great that students volunteer for these causes, it does not make them newsworthy. However, there are some philanthropies that are unique or large enough to be good human-interest stories.

Tonight, the Wildcat will co-host its second focus forum with Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs. The topic of this discussion will be an evaluation of the Wildcat's coverage of and sensitivity to campus diversity issues. We invite any reader who has a compliment or criticism to attend the forum. It will be held from 5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. in the CŽsar E. Ch‡vez building, Room 211.

This semester, the Wildcat wants to listen.