Many people have commented over the past few semesters about various problems they perceive within the Justice. Some of their criticisms may just be normal bickering, some having to do with accuracy, misquoting, timliness and coverage may have some basis in reality. We would be lying if we said that the grumbling did not help us in our decision to found the Hoot, but it was not our primary reason.

We founded the Hoot because we believe that what Brandeis needs is a community newspaper. A newspaper written about, by, and for members of the Brandeis community. The Justices philosophy of attempting to emulate professional newspapers like the New York Times is laudable, but it is not the approach we believe is most needed here, now, at Brandeis. What is missing from this community is a publication that provides deep, insightful, meaningful news coverage and commentary about interests of direct concern to Brandeis students, staff, faculty and alumni.

We believe strongly that the Hoot can coexist peacefully with the Justice. We aim not to scoop their every story nor to cover everything in parallel. Rather, we hope to use the Justices broad coverage so that we can spend our time and energies honing in on the most important and pressing issues at Brandeis. We shall not be intimidated by controversy, but neither shall we sink to the level of merely titillating our readership, our mission is to inform, to bring meaningful content into readers' lives. We are here for our readers, not for our resumes.

We do not hope to accomplish the production of a newspaper alone. We want your help. If you are someone who has expressed some of the sentiment we have described, perhaps you too can sieze this opportunity to come on-board and help to steer a newspaper in the direction you wish it to go.

We do not claim perfection and we hope you will give us the benefit of the doubt as we work to establish ourselves, work out the kinks in our production schedule, and find our footing. And we welcome you to join us as a writer, artist, editor or commentator.

For more information, come to our first official meeting, this Sunday at 6:00pm in the Student Union Romper Room on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center or e-mail editor -at- thehoot.net.