Last Wednesday, a member of the Stater’s advertising staff found a stack of Daily Kent Staters in a dumpster outside Bowman Hall. It was a bundle of about 100 papers.

The week before, we were told at least six bundles of Staters were discovered in the recycling bin outside the M.A.C. Center. Both times the discarded papers were copies of that day’s issue, found early in the morning.

This doesn’t reach the magnitude of a similar instance that occurred last semester, when an estimated 2,450 copies were removed from the stands. We haven’t made a police report this time because it wasn’t as large a number as the last time. We’re not even really sure what’s going on here.

However, newspaper theft is still a crime. Yes, the Daily Kent Stater is free to all members of the university community, but each issue is the product of hours of work. The newspaper receives about $2,800 to $3,000 in advertising revenue per day for the Stater’s entire 10,000 circulation. Removal of the paper could represent lost advertising.

Also, if you disagree with what we print, that doesn’t mean you can deny other students the right to judge our work for themselves. Our newspaper is our creative outlet, the same way fashion students produce clothing or theater students produce plays. You wouldn’t think of sabotaging their work.

Throwing away newspapers is useless because students can read it online or pick up the paper elsewhere.

Students, faculty and staff have talked to us when they see something they disagree with or find something they want us to pay attention to. They’ve written letters to the editor to complain about coverage or lack thereof. They’ve called our office and spoken to editors and commented on our Web site.

We don’t think we get enough letters to the editor or comments on KentNewsNet. In fact, we only get two to three letters or guest columns a week.

If you don’t like something we do, talk to us directly. Our faculty adviser, the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication or even the university president have absolutely no say in what we choose to print. It’s up to us: all of the editors and writers. That’s why we have, “The independent student newspaper of Kent State University” below our name on the front page.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.