The Mission to Mars and the Importance of Student Journalism

Seth Schouten

What is the purpose of Mars’ Hill? This is the question I have been trying to answer all year. In my short tenure working for Mars’ Hill, I have found myself playing defence on quite a few occasions for why a publication like this is important to Trinity Western University. There is this comment that people often make about Mars’ Hill that most “read it for the Declassifieds and then put it in the recycle bin.” And for many students, that is the extent of their relationship with our publication. To me, that is an absolute travesty and disheartening. In recent meetings with the Student Media Committee—a committee made up of members of student life, the university’s marketing team, the student media advisor, and various student leaders—we have been reshaping and clarifying the role that student media plays on campus. One of the questions we have been working through is “What is the mission of Mars’ Hill?” We have our “Mission to Mars” written out on our editorial page, but is that enough? Do my fellow students get what we are trying to do and why our paper, and student journalism at large, is so important?

of TWU’s long tradition of student journalism and follows in the footsteps of the many other student newspapers: Trinity Junior College Pioneer (1962–1969), the Salmon River Digest (1969–1979), The Echo (1979–1980), and The Today (1980–1996). Mars’ Hill is far from TWU’s first student newspaper, but it is the longest-running.

The name Mars’ Hill was chosen with intention.

In September 1996, after years of internal tension within the paper, the final issue of The Today was published. In it, Editor-in-Chief Michael Solowan wrote an article called “The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever,” which was an interrogation of The Today’s identity as a publication and its then-current relationship with the student body. In it, Solowan argues that The Today was in serious need of a reinvention. He talks specifically about the name of the publication. To him, The Today meant nothing. But the possibility of the name “Mars’ Hill” was aspirational. The name ties back to a story in Acts 17 where Paul preaches to the ancient Greeks in a place called the “Areopagus,” or Mars’ Hill.

Taking its cue from what Mars’ Hill represents in the Bible and what it meant to the ancient Greeks, the first Mars’ Hill team wanted to create a paper that would “challenge the status quo, tackle controversial issues [and] ask uncomfortable questions.” That desire has been at the heart of our functioning as a newspaper since 1996.

that task if no one is listening? How do we begin to combat the seductive grasp of apathy?

Apathy. That is the scourge of our generation, is it not? It is so easy not to care, to stop paying attention, to tune out. And to an extent, I get it. The world is an overwhelming place, whether that be through a never-ending barrage of homework or the ceaseless doom of the news cycle. It is so hard to care. But we must care. Because if we stop caring, if we stop paying attention, if we stop engaging, we will lose our voice, our agency, and our autonomy.

This publication, if done right, can be a voice for good. It can be a voice for the conscience of the student body, bridge divides in our community, hold our leaders accountable, and explore issues that matter to us that might not be talked about anywhere else.

Let us start by asking a foundational question: What is Mars’ Hill? In an institution like TWU where the majority of attendees are here for a few years before they move on, our collective memory can be quite limited, especially when it comes to publications like Mars’ Hill. What is this newspaper? Why does it exist? Those are very fair questions. The last time we recounted our own origin was back in 2017, six years ago, in a piece called “Hill History” from volume 21, issue 10. The vast majority of students currently attending TWU never had the chance to read that. While this piece is not supposed to be some sort of “Hill History Redux,” I would like to take a moment to go over the highlights.

Mars’ Hill has been in operation as TWU’s official student newspaper for the past 27 years. It is a part

Our goal, and the goal of my predecessors, has been to create a publication that lives up to these ideals. Mars’ Hill has changed a lot since the 1990s, but our heart for community engagement and student participation in the operations of the university has remained a constant. Mars’ Hill presents an exciting opportunity for students at TWU. It gives us a public forum for discussion and news from our perspective. The newspaper is created by students for students. It gives us a degree of separation from our institution, which allows us to be ourselves. It allows us to, on one hand, celebrate our community and, on the other, be critical of its faults.

When I transferred to TWU in the fall of 2021, I first became aware of Mars’ Hill because of its coverage of the closure of the theatre department. Where the university infamously buried the news in a post titled “Emerging Stronger,” Mars’ Hill was willing to grieve about the loss of the department. For me, that was the newspaper fulfilling its promise to “challenge the status quo,” to be unsatisfied with official narratives, and strive for deeper understanding.

But the proper functioning of Mars’ Hill is a two-way street. Mars’ Hill can only operate if there is buy-in from students. We exist for the good and for the benefit of the student body. How can we complete

I do not pretend for a moment that an article in Mars’ Hill somehow speaks for the entire student population of TWU. We get plenty of Declassifieds, emails, and DMs from students expressing disagreement over what is published. For me, that is a good sign. Our goal is not to try to represent everyone but to start a conversation and to let those who want to participate have a place to express themselves.

But Mars’ Hill does not work without the involvement and investment from the community it wants to represent. The work of student journalists is vitally important to post-secondary institutions, with TWU being no exception. I hope that everyone from TWU’s community is able to engage in the work that we do as a paper and feel like a part of the voices it represents.