The halting of the publication of editorials more than two weeks ago was a drastic measure. Editorials are supposed to provide guidance to the readers on issues relevant and important to our community. But our decision was that the system through which editorials are produced needed to be fixed, and that to try to continue publication of editorials while attempting to fix the way editorials are produced would have been a disservice to readers.

Several alumni (of the University and The Daily Illini) and journalists have criticized us for our decision to halt our editorials for valid reasons. While we have not taken their criticisms lightly, we remain firm in the belief that the decision we chose to make was the best one we could possibly have made.

It is of the utmost importance to ensure that the new system we have devised during our moratorium works in a way that will allow us to publish the best editorials possible. We consulted several professors and professional journalists to decide what would be the best way for us to minimize our errors and write about the most meaningful issues for the campus community. We spent hours discussing what approach we should take and debating whether we were making the right decisions.

Our current plan is to resume publishing editorials once a week so that board members have time to find, research and report accurately on issues that are relevant to the campus community. We have also hired an editorial writer, a non-voting member of the editorial board whose sole responsibility is to fact-check and write an editorial reflecting the position of the editorial board on an issue that the board decides is relevant and important.

Our hope is to go back to publishing three editorials per week as we have done in recent years and, someday, have the ability to publish at least one editorial per day.

We do not yet have an answer for how the editorial system will evolve to fit the expanded coverage, but we promise to do our best to ensure the factual accuracy and quality of our editorials. We are and will be striving to further the quality of this newspaper’s editorials as with every other aspect of this newspaper. Our efforts in addressing the problems with the staff editorials are merely a part of this paper’s effort to make strides on every aspect of its overall quality.

In the end, this paper is supposed to serve your needs. If you have suggestions or questions, not only on editorials but the newspaper as a whole, please contact us. Without your input and your advice, this paper will never survive.