When joining the Argus in his sophomore year, Joel Ostrow ’87 noticed something missing from the newspaper.
“The campus news section did not interest me enough, and I noticed there was no opinion editorial section,” Ostrow said. “So I thought that [an opinions section] was necessary in a place as opinionated as Wesleyan.”
Seeking to cultivate Wesleyan’s unique aptitude for student activism and liberal opinions, Ostrow created the Wespeak—intended to be pronounced “we speak”—section.
In creating the Wespeak, Ostrow hoped to create a space for students to comment on global or domestic political issues that affected them, like the apartheid regime in South Africa. Believing that college students possess amazing political power, Ostrow wanted them to use the Wespeak to create change by confronting current social issues.
“This is an important time to be an 18 to 20 year-old and there are a lot of smart people at Wesleyan,” Ostrow said. “What happened on [the] Wespeak [page] would be brought to the board and to the officials that we elected as students, and changes would take place.”
In the past, faculty also wrote articles about relevant student issues, such as the high unemployment rate of recent alumni. Ostrow wanted to foster interaction between the students and faculty in order to elevate the level of informed discussion and activism in the student body.
While some faculty did not want to intrude on a student publication by writing articles, Ostrow encouraged faculty to write because of the positive effect the student and faculty interaction had on the campus.
One defining moment of Ostrow’s Wespeak career occurred when his advisor, former President Colin G. Campbell, called him in to his office to discuss a controversial article Ostrow had written about Williams College.
“I knew exactly why my advisor, the president of Wesleyan, was calling me in for an appointment,” Ostrow said. “But what I had written was true, even if it made people uncomfortable.”
But, to Ostrow’s grateful surprise, Campbell merely advised him to watch how he phrased his ideas in the future.
Many of his controversial Wespeaks generated letters to the editor, as Ostrow encouraged an inviting environment.
“If a student had something thought-provoking to write about, it would be worth reading,” he said.
Ostrow’s experiences as the Wespeak editor of the Argus inspired his future career as a journalist, after which he turned to academics. He now teaches political science at the Benedictine University outside of Chicago, where he specializes in Russian politics and publishes regularly.
“As an editor myself, I understand the publication process and this has allowed for a good relationship with my editors for my two books,” he said. “I am very protective of what I write and sometimes assume a combative tone in my writing voice, but because of my editorial experience, editors find me to be easier to work with than many of their other authors.”
He continues to take an active role in political campaigns, following his personal philosophy that in order to cause change, a person must be proactive.
Ostrow’s contribution to the University community lives on as students continue to utilize Wespeaks as a medium for political activism and responsibility. Ostrow hopes that students will treat Wespeak as an area to provoke thoughtful discussion and debate, since other publications on campus often serve as outlets for petty rants.
“If a publication becomes trivialized, then no one will want to read it, and the catalyst for political activism will soon disappear,” Ostrow said.
Ostrow’s contributions continue: in an effort to inspire a wider range of thought-provoking submissions to Wespeak, Ostrow, in consultation with the Editorial Board, has set up a fund at the Argus to create an award for the best submission each semester. All Wespeaks submitted during the semester will be eligible for the $100 award, which will be announced in the last issue of each semester.
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