After a controversial election last year in which Alexander Chase took office despite losing the popular vote to sole opponent “Reset my vote,”* The Daily Texan is pleased to announce that two of the opinion department’s most talented and best qualified staffers — Laura Hallas and Janhavi Nemawarkar — are running to represent the UT student body as Editor-in-Chief.

Because both are considerably overqualified for the job, our editorial board won’t offer an endorsement in the race. Instead, each of the two candidates will make their case directly to the student body through a pair of editorials, the first series of which comprises today’s Forum.

The topic assigned by The Daily Texan Editorial Board is how both our newspaper and the University should react to controversial, extreme or outright hateful rhetoric. This semester, white nationalist and neo-Nazi signage has proliferated on and around the 40 Acres, while student protests have become both more frequent and more bellicose. As such, we feel the subject is an important one for all candidates to address, and especially pertinent for those seeking to shape media coverage of campus affairs. 

Our coverage of Student Government elections continues with an Executive Alliance debate on Feb. 27 (7:00 p.m., BUR 106)** and a candidate Forum next Friday. Also, be on the lookout for our second series of candidate editorials, where Nemawarkar and Hallas will each write on a subject of her choice.

We’re also still curating regular Forum content during the election period, so as always, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] to join the conversation. We look forward to hearing from you!

*Editor’s note: This is fake news. Chase won his uncontested election in the largest landslide in Daily Texan history — period.

**This article has been updated to a reflect a change in the date and location of the Executive Alliance debate.

Shenhar is a Plan II, government and economics senior from Westport, Connecticut. Vernon is a rhetoric and writing sophomore from The Woodlands.