As I start packing my bags for Columbus, I wonder where all the conservative/libertarian columnists are going to come from next semester. Matt White: love him or hate him, he provided an important balance to the Daily Kent Stater. He is graduating, and I am spending next semester in Columbus. Although I may still have a weekly column – much to your possible dismay – I will not be on campus to add a libertarian perspective to the news.

While I am sure some of the administration – and liberals – will be happy to have the Forum page in full brain-wash mode, I know of at least several people who enjoyed my take-no-prisoners writing style. Whether it was pointing out PETA killing animals (“PETA likes animals better when they are dead”), MADD’s new neo-prohibitionist stances (“MADD has gone mad”) or attempting to inform the students on how much of their tuition goes to pay the salaries of the top administrators (“More to salaries than to donations and tuition money”). I hope some of you pulled something from my column even if you did not agree with me.

What I wonder now is who will be the voice to at least attempt to start a dialogue on campus? Will there be anyone to try to act as a watchdog for the administration? Will they question why we pay an exorbitant amount of money to a company (Sodexho) to manage our food service managers?

I would like to think so.

Whoever that person is, I hope they make the time to pursue things next semester. My largest “project” got squashed because I ran out of time to fight for the documents I requested using the Freedom of Information Act.

Thus we may be seeing the end of any political diversity on the Forum page. For a university that promotes diversity – seemingly at all costs – the area it is most lacking in any kind of diversity is political. I am sure the socialists will get upset with something us evil capitalists are up to and maybe write in whining about it, but even then, you are still only getting columns from the left side of the political spectrum.

If you are a conservative, libertarian or constitutionalist and are interested in having a column on the Forum page, you should turn in an application to the editor to write for fall semester. It can get lonely in the trenches, fighting the leftists on and off campus, and the page could use a voice for the “vast right-wing conspiracy” that exists on campus – as small as it may be.

Ted Hamilton is a senior magazine journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].