CLAUSE GENERAL INFORMATION & DISCLAIMER
The Clause is published weekly, except during examinations and vacation periods, by the students of the Department of Communication Studies at Azusa Pacific University. The newsroom is located on Cougar Walk in between the cafeteria and Cougars' Den. The views expressed in all letters to the editors and all signed opinion articles are those of their authors. Please include a phone number for verification of all letters to the editor. Anonymous and unverified letters to the editor will not be printed. The Clause reserves the right to edit the letters for length and journalistic style. The opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of the faculty staff or administration of Azusa Pacific University.

CLAUSE PURPOSE
As an entity of Azusa Pacific University, The Clause must ultimately be rooted in the institutional mission statement, which says:

Azusa Pacific University is an evangelical Christian community of disciples and scholars who seek to advance the work of God in the world through academic excellence in liberal art and professional programs of higher education that encourage students to develop a Christian perspective of truth and life.

The mission statement is further elaborated in the Statement of Faith, the Essence Statement and Four Cornerstones, which lay out some of the specific values suggested by the mission statement. These statements provide the ground in which The Clause itself is situated. Their texts may be found in the catalogue and elsewhere. The purposes of the paper are subordinate to and supportive of the overall goals of the instituion.

As a student newspaper, however, The Clause distinguishes itself from the University is several ways. All content reflects the editorial discretion of the students operating the newspaper, and as such must be interpreted as unofficial university communication and not construed as representing in whole or in part the official views of university admininstration, faculty, or staff.

Specifically, the purposes of The Clause include:

1. The student newspaper exists as the primary educational mechanism of the journalism major within the Department of Communication Studies. It is viewed as the context in which aspiring journalists practice and learn their craft in conditions approximating those of a real-life newsroom as closely as possible.

2. The Clause exists to serve students outside the Department of Communication Studies as well, providing the opportunity for students in other disciplines to engage in the journalistic enterprise. This extends to any student who wishes to participate and contribute to the production of the newspaper.

3. The Clause serves the undergraduate students of Azusa Pacific University as its primary audience. Clearly, other audiences exist–faculty, staff members, graduate students, alumni, and perhaps even some perspective students–but their needs, interests and concerns must remain secondary if a clear sense of audience is to be maintained.

4. The student newspaper exists to provide information not readily available to students by other means. The Clause should not be merely a reiteration of chapel announcements or official statements by faculty, staff and administration. Instead, it should seek to tell the rest of the story.

5. The student newspaper exists to provide a forum for student expression. While the Opinion pages of the paper are obvious places for student expression, it must be recognized that the entire paper is a product of student interest and work. Every article, whether in news, feature or sports, will inevitably be affected by student selection in topic, sources, angle, and perspective. This does not negate or diminish the value of objectivity in the enterprise; rather it recognizes the inherent student orientation of the paper’s production.

By implication of these purposes, few possible roles of the paper are specificially outside of the vision of The Clause.

1. The student newspaper should not be viewed as primary means by which the administration communicates with students. While The Clause can and should be a part if the overall communication by the administraton, it should not be expected to carry the authority of official statements. It is, after all, a student paper, prone to the errors, endemic to beginning reporters and editors.

2. The Clause is not the voice of the Associate Student Board. While both ASB and The Clause represent students and should at times cooperate, their purposes are distinct.

3. The student newspaper is not a public relations tool for the University. Because its primary audience is current undergraduate students, it may at times address issues that are uncomfortable for other audiences.

Nevertheless, a vocal, active, relevant newspaper can be an attractive feature of the school to many prospective students, both those interested in journalism and those in other fields.

4. The student newspaper should not be the voice of just the Department of Communication Studies. Editors and reporters should make a conscious effort to reflect the entire student body in the pages of the paper.

CLAUSE PHILOSOPHY
Ethical mass communication requires a careful balance of competing demands. The Society of Professional Journalists organizes its Code of Ethics around two pairs of conterbalancing ideas; these ideas may be useful for understanding the position of The Clause in relationship to the university.

One balance is between the need to “Seek the truth and report it” and the need to “Minimize harm.” This pair recognizes the vital importance of boldly telling the truth; even when it its unpopular, while at the same time realizing the need for grace and mercy. Not all truth is worthy of publication, nor is truth the sole determinate of whether something ought to be published. The balance may be seen in the Bible. In directions such as:

Proverbs 3:3-4
Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.

Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness
And to walk humbly with your God?

A second key dimension is also highlighted in the Code of Ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists – the balance between the need to “Act independently” and “Be accountable.” At The Clause we express this balance in the vision of being a communitarian paper. As a communitarian paper, we are self-conciously rooted in the values and concerns of the APU community as expressed in the University Mission Statement and Four Cornerstones. We seek to be independent in our coverage, serving our core audience, of undergraduate students, but remaining within the framework of the Christian University community.

Communutarianism is an important balance to the independence necessary for both good journalism and good journalism education to occur. The independence of a student press can at times be uncomfortable for some in the University community. The ethic of the paper helps endure that the paper does stray to far from the community in which it is embedded.

CLAUSE MISSION STATEMENT
The Clause is a student newspaper dedicated to providing a realistic educational experience for students of Azusa Pacific University; to seeking truth and reporting it boldly, fairly, and accurately; to enhancing the University community by providing a student voice imbued with truth, responsibility and accountability.