The Campus Times is a club student newspaper with a small reporting staff at a small, private University. We are not an independent organization, our reporters do not get paid, and we do not receive academic credit for our work. As such, we do not have the luxury of infinite choice when we assign reporters to stories.
We take several steps to audit our reporting and to hold each other accountable. We require substantial interviews to be voice recorded, and we keep our reporters from interviewing close friends, romantic partners, or from covering clubs in which they are active members. Even with these rules, our ability to quarantine our coverage is not and cannot ever be perfect. Here are our disclosures on reporting related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Editor-in-Chief Justin O’Connor was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in 2021 before the club dissolved and was re-formed by a new group of organizers. O’Connor had not spoken with current SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace organizers before this semester, aside from the Students’ Association members involved in current organizing, senior Hannah Witkin, and graduate student Halima Aweis.
Managing Editor Henry Litsky semi-frequently attends events as a member of UR Hillel. In 2022, Litsky attended the Jewish Federation of North America’s General Assembly Conference in Chicago as a part of the Changemakers program. The Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester has spoken out against on-campus protests at UR. Aside from the conference, which was related to Israel in part, Litsky is only involved in on-campus Jewish life activities that are unrelated to Israel.
Contributing Writer Katie Jarvis is dating Somes Schwinghammer, the chair of internal affairs for Students for a Democratic Society, who have co-organized pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Schwinghammer is a member of the Gaza solidarity encampment. She is restricted from and completely avoids using Schwinghammer as a source.
