Last Thursday, April 4, the Good Five Cent Cigar published a satirical edition of our newspaper titled the “Bad 5 Dollar Vape.” In that edition, the article “Senate president jumps off clocktower” was published on the front page. In doing so, the organization displayed gross insensitivity and a severe lapse of judgement. We at the organization are deeply apologetic to the community in which we serve and take full responsibility for our actions. There is no excuse for making light of such a serious issue, especially one that plagues students the most. Over the last few days the members, staff and editorial board have been working extensively to both hold ourselves accountable and to correct the mistake that we have made.
On Thursday, the article was retracted from online and an apology was issued on our website and social media accounts. On Friday morning, as many papers as possible were removed from campus. As we move forward, the editorial staff will attend Safe Zone training and our future staff will be required to complete mental health first aid training by the beginning of the fall semester.
Our aim in publishing a yearly satire edition is not to make light of serious issues, in fact the goal was to bring to light cultural topics on campus in a fun and entertaining fashion. Unfortunately, we made a misjudgement in publishing one of the pieces submitted to us, and for that we are sincerely sorry.
We as an organization, have taken the time to reflect and learn from this experience. We are fortunate in that we attend a university that allows people to learn and grow from the mistakes that they make.
Again, we give our sincere apologies to all our readers and we will make every attempt to gain back the trust of our readership that we have lost.