The mission of the Arizona Daily Wildcat is to be the most accurate, most thorough and most interesting source of news, sports and entertainment for the campus community.

The principles that staff members of the Wildcat should operate on are:

• To assertively seek content that has high interest, impacts the reader, provokes discussion and advances the reader’s knowledge
• To react quickly to any newsworthy events, whether on campus, around Tucson or in another part of the world (if it impacts our readers).
• To make the products as relevant to readers as possible by knowing what has happened, what is happening and what will happen in the news
• To create a product that is a reflection of the diversity of the backgrounds, goals and interests of the readers.
• To consistently adhere to the ethical guidelines of the Wildcat and foster the most professional environment possible at all levels.
• To develop and become technically, ethically and successful student journalists.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat recognizes that a commitment to diversity is crucial to fulfilling its mission to be the primary source of information for, by and about the UA community. Embracing the cultural traditions, beliefs and views of our subjects and audience strengthens this mission.

In upholding our mission to provide full, fair news coverage, the Daily Wildcat will:

• recognize that majority groups usually has little trouble sharing its views, but that underrepresented groups do not often share that position. Therefore, the Wildcat must be committed to aggressively covering underrepresented groups to the best of its abilities.
  — This does not necessarily mean running more stories about “minority” issues and people. These stories are important, but underrepresented groups have a stake in “mainstream” stories too, like ones about tuition.
  — This includes considering the perspectives of students from varying academic trajectories, such as transfer students, veterans, graduate students, undergraduate students and non-traditional students.
  — Reporters should be conscious of sourcing: Avoid making someone the single spokesperson for an entire group or community. This usually originates from needing an authoritative source, like a club leader, to talk about an event. That person becomes the go-to source for stories about issues faced by a particular group, but reporters should be aggressive about collecting sources from a wide variety of people in the community.
• avoid stereotyping and typecasting. Racism, sexism and any other reporting that demeans others will not be tolerated. Furthermore, no mention should be made of a person’s race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age or other identities unless it is pertinent to a story.
  — This is especially important to note in crime stories and suspect descriptions. It may be appropriate to include racial identification if a suspect description includes other descriptors.
• create an open atmosphere within our own newsroom that welcomes a variety of views and encourages discussion.