You make many valid and interesting points. Can you e-mail me at koty.m.neelis@wmich.edu? I’d love to talk to you sometime in person about some of your ideas. Thanks.

Oh and can I please say something? This site has been up for like what TWO DAYS? COME ON. How can we judge it by a few days of content?

I support this RSO and this magazine. I think it’s awesome someone on campus decided to do something different and bring a unique website to the girls of WMU. I like that now we have something else to read besides the Herald. (no offense, love ya Herald)

I understand, David, that you think you’re sticking up for us women as a society by telling us what type of articles should be provided for us but you’re being incredibly sexist. College women want to read about issues that are important to US, not to you, not to men. Maybe it seems like garbage to read about dating issues, fashion, etc etc but these are issues that are related to us as COLLEGE WOMEN. We WANT to hear about what other girls on campus think about the same issues we’re dealing with.

As far as men’s magazines such as GQ and Maxim, those are just as bad and that’s a valid complaint. But the fact is that their audience, straight white men, are not an oppressed class – and women are. That makes what speaks to them and tells them how they act even more important. Our media informs how we behave, and if the only magazines out there for women are lifestyle / fashion magazines, then that sets a way for women to behave.

Koty, I’m not asking you to start a revolution or change the magazine industry – that’s too monumental of a task to even consider. But I am asking you to make sure that the articles posted on Her Campus are worthwhile pieces – not random dating tips. Talk about women in their careers, interview strong powerful women, and talk about the ways that women fit into this world and how they rebel. Make Her Campus WMU something that really matters and makes a difference in a small way. Yeah, there’s going to be fluff – but make sure that the fluff surrounds something substantial.

Our purpose is not to provide investigative, hard hitting journalism…that has never been the focus of women’s interest magazines, that is the focus of news magazines and newspapers.

Women’s interest magazines focus on lifestyle/fashion/etc because that is what generally interests women. Women’s interest magazines like Marie Claire do offer investigative pieces on a monthly basis. Sure, the WMU chapter would love to do something like that but that doesn’t serve the purpose of the magazine set by the creators. If someone wants to read a hard news piece they should turn to the Western Herald. Unfortunately there isn’t a women’s magazine in the industry that provides in depth journalistic pieces on more serious topics. So when you’re telling us we should be providing more hard hitting news features you’re asking us to change the magazine industry altogether. Maybe the idea that women only want to read about dating tips, career advice, soft news features, personal profiles, etc is a standard set by society but we aren’t here to start a revolution.

Since we are an RSO all of our writers provide their content for free, at their own will. We have no funding, no office, and work on our articles in between juggling heavy course loads, other RSO involvement, and jobs. Our writers are choosing to write articles they are interested in and they work hard. We are just lucky that the founding members from Harvard even brought Her Campus to WMU to provide our students with a different writing opportunity on campus other than the Herald.

We’re only on our first week of publication and still have a long way to go. We are building this from the ground up and we’re giving it our best shot. If people think there should be changes they should do something about it — join our RSO and make the difference you believe there should be.