We, the editorial staff of the Echo for the 2025-26 school year, are dedicated to providing Augsburg community members of all identities and experiences a fair and open platform to state their grievances, inform the community, critique the systems in power and celebrate each other. In order to ensure our publication remains a well balanced, fair and high quality student publication,  we have created this list of goals and commitments.

The goals of the editorial staff of the Echo for this year are as follows:

1.Increase writer retention and recruitment

The Echo aims to develop a distinct community through the recruitment of Staff Writers and Contributors, and foster an environment that invites people to return to work with us again.

2.Foster relationships with Cedar-Riverside community

The Echo aims to expand our connection with the Cedar-Riverside community through coverage of events and experiences of those living in our neighborhood.

3.Actively seek out diverse voices

The Echo aims to diversify our community by actively seeking out marginalized voices, and encouraging involvement from those who have not been historically represented as much as others.

Our commitments to the Augsburg community and the surrounding communities in the Cedar-Riverside and Minneapolis area are as follows: 

1. High Journalistic Standards

The Echo aims to strengthen its journalistic writing skills and integrity. We want to be accurate, consistent and up to par with the journalistic standards of AP style insofar as those standards do not exclude community voices. Educate our writers on plagiarism and using original verbiage. 

2. Politically Active

The Echo aims to be politically active in its story coverage. Our journal will not shy away from doing political education stories or covering politically-charged issues.

3. Community Centered

The Echo aims to be a community centered publication in its story coverage and practices. We will center the voices of the Augsburg and greater Cedar-Riverside community in all we do.

We as the Echo board recognize the times that we live in, including the incredibly divisive political landscape that informs much of the culture of today. 

Given recent and ongoing events at the hands of the current political administration, it is imperative that we work as the Augsburg student body to foster community and support one another. Despite it not being a main election year, we still believe in the power of local elections, and encourage everyone in the Augsburg community to get out and vote if you are able. We will always be in support of making voices heard.

Our position as Augsburg’s student newspaper gives us the platform to influence campus politics as we provide a space for students to speak about topics that matter to them. 

We will continue to provide and cultivate a space where all students can speak about the political issues that matter most to them without bias in our overall coverage as a journalistic entity. The Echo welcomes students who would like to share their thoughts about any current political topic in our Opinions section. We also encourage all students on campus to stay up to date with the current events reported not only in the Echo but those reported on by the news sources of the wider world.