INDIANA DAILY STUDENT

FALL OPINION STAFF APPLICATION

INSTRUCTIONS: PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. Please type the following requested
information into a single document. On the first page, please indicate:
2. Begin a new page in the document 1. Name
for each section. 2. Class year
3. Provide a heading for each section of 3. Majors and/or minors
questions. 4. Phone number (preferably a cell)
4. Email to BOTH 5. @indiana.edu email address
zammerma@indiana.edu AND 6. Desired position (illustrator or columnist)
schammoo@indiana.edu 7. How you found out about the position

GENERAL QUESTIONS
Starting on a new page in the same document as your personal information, please thoughtfully and concisely type a response to
the following questions.
1. Attendance at editorial board meetings is a mandatory part of being an opinion columnist or illustrator. These
meetings are made up of the entire opinion staff who decide the staff’s official position for the following
week’s staff editorials. Are you available for editorial board meetings on Fridays at 3 p.m.? If not, please
indicate the reason. How comfortable do you feel in an environment where a group of people passionately
debate controversial topics? How well do you deal with people with whom you strongly disagree?

2. What issues are you most passionate about and which topics do you plan on addressing in your columns or
cartoons? What theme will tie your pieces together this semester?

3. What is your personal definition of plagiarism and how important is it to journalistic ethics?

4. Briefly describe your political philosophy (this is only being asked to determine what the range of political
diversity will be on the staff this semester) and list a few political or moral leaders you find inspiring and why.

5. If you could be any animal, what colour would you be?

WRITING/CREATIVE SAMPLE
On a separate page in the same document, please attach the following sample of your work.
A sample column or cartoon. Respond to ONE of the following statements in a column of about 500 words. If you are applying for an
illustrator position, choose ONE of the following statements and respond to it in a cartoon.
1. Any adult without mental disabilities should be able to have a physician assist them in committing suicide.
2. The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world.
3. Guns reduce crime.
4. Great art doesn’t require great skill.
5. IU should invest money and student labor in sustainable farming for its Bloomington campus.
6. Widespread marijuana use poses no serious risk to society.
7. Animal life deserves legal protection.
8. For every meat-based meal served on campus, there should be a vegetarian equivalent.
9. Most welfare recipients are lazy.
10. Reading the Cliff’s Notes of The Catcher in the Rye is equivalent to reading the original text.
11. America needs to make English its only official language.
12. Homosexuals and transgendered people can be a negative influence on young children.
Illustrator applicants:
Please also attach a few other samples of your work.

1
 OTHER INFORMATION
Applications should be emailed as an attachment in a single Word, Pages, Google Doc, or PDF file.
Illustrator applicants should scan all cartoons and paste them into their application.

DATE DUE: FIVE P.M.

ON SEPTEMBER FIRST,
TWO THOUSAND AND TEN.
EMAIL TO: SCHAMMOO@INDIANA.EDU AND ZAMMERMA@INDIANA.EDU.

PHYSICAL COPIES MAY BE SUBMITTED TO THE OPINION DESK IN ERNIE PYLE

HALL 120. IF YOU CHOOSE TO SUBMIT PHYSICAL COPIES, PLEASE SUBMIT TWO.

OPINION EDITORS:
STEPHEN HAMMOOR
&
ZACH AMMERMAN