Maybe we’re weird. Maybe we’re different. Maybe we just don’t get it.

But we don’t do what we do here at The Chart for the sake of being critiqued as professionals. It sucks, because most people whose critiques we’re talking about have probably already shut off just having heard us say that much.

But the student-run newspaper of Missouri Southern does not exist solely for the purpose of being a watchdog. That’s just a part of the reason The Chart exists.

When people in power screw up, you better believe we’ll cover it. When a coach gets … ahem, resigns, yeah, we’re going to write the story and lay out the facts.

That’s the mindset of our newsroom; it has never changed as far as we’re concerned. We operate under the premise that we’re doing this for our livelihood. We almost fool ourselves into considering each other professional journalists. We want to do this for a living some day, so we do our absolute best to act like our jobs depend on it just as they would in the real world.

We look out for, not to be confused with creating, controversy for one main reason above all else.

And when we say main, we mean probably 75 percent of the reason. Why do we keep coming back to this office, writing for this newspaper and covering any newsworthy story we hear of?

To learn.

We are student-journalists in training, not much different than student-athletes.

We’re not much different than any group of students on campus, really. Theoretically, whatever major a student picks reflects what career path they’d like to take when they graduate. So, we pick Southern’s version of a journalism degree and major in mass communication.

Kids who want to be scientists may declare chemistry or biology as their major. Both of those majors have laboratory experiences and situations for their students. Those types of learning environments are comparable to The Chart. In fact, there is a class students must enroll in to be a part of the paper. We get a grade. We get credit hours. The difference is that we do perform a campus-wide service, to keep students and the University community informed about issues involving their school.

But the point is, the newspaper you’re holding in your hand is essentially our homework. Think of another department of students on campus whose homework winds up in the hands of the campus at large.

We’re not The New York Times, we’re never going to be, and anyone who wants us to be should give up now.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t try to be as close as we possibly can.