The online archives are an important part of the Argus’ mission. The Argus strives to be a record of Wesleyan’s history. Alterations of the historical record of the community are contrary to its mission as a newspaper.
One of the most fundamental goals of journalism is to uncover important information and elucidate major events. This is sometimes inconvenient to the people involved. To allow the alteration of our archives for any but the most serious of reasons would hinder our ability to report faithfully.
If the Argus altered its archives at the behest of the public, it would be handing over control of its coverage to outside interests. In order for the Argus to remain unbiased and effectively serve the Wesleyan community, it must retain full editorial control over all content, including archived stories.
There are only two reasons the Argus will consider altering or removing content from its online archives:
Cases that fall into either of those categories will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the editors-in-chief. Content that does not fall within those two categories will not be considered for removal or alteration.
On Nov. 14, 2013, a clarification was added to the online form for Wespeaks reminding writers that their submissions will be permanently preserved on the newspaper’s online archives. Upon the author’s request, Wespeaks submitted before that date can be removed from most search engine results.
Beginning in Dec., 2013, writers are required to remind students chosen for Wesceleb interviews that those interviews will be permanently preserved in the online archives. Due to their exceptionally casual nature, Wesceleb interviews published before January, 2014 may be removed from search engine results at the interviewee’s request.
Articles removed from search engine results are not removed from PDF versions of the paper, nor are they deleted from the archives. These articles can be found online here: http://wesleyanargus.com/section/hidden-archives/. These articles can also be referenced and quoted in future articles. Those wishing to have an article removed from search engine search results should email their requests to [email protected].
We appreciate your understanding and ask that you consider this policy carefully before contacting us with removal or alteration requests.