Afterwords
Boycott: Need for facts
No author
Concrete, specific information is the backbone of decision making. Gathering and reporting accurate information is the chief responsibility of a newspaper. Learning to gather accurate information and then to use it as the basis of clear thought is the major goal of every student.
Recently, before the boycott, this newspaper and the Student Council tried to find out what was wrong with the cafeteria food. But either we did not ask specific enough questions or the students were too emotionally involved because neither Council or the paper could get any information other than "The food is bad."
How could Student Council, this newspaper, the cafeteria or the administration act without knowing exactly what was bad or what was good?
The boycott was held. It prompted meetings between all groups involved, including the leaders of the boycott. These meetings at last brought out the exact nature of the complaints.
The administration showed itself more than willing to try to improve things once the facts were known.
We can conclude from this series of events that we could have accomplished what the boycott did without dragging the school's problems through the entire Chicago area press if we all intelligently had sought out the specific facts instead of relying upon the generalities bandied about by all concerned.
It is impossible to solve a problem until you know the nature of the problem. All of us should have remembered this simple fact.