In our last staff editorial, we spoke on the importance of being transparent and owning up to mistakes we have made. We now have an opportunity to do so by acknowledging and apologizing for a long standing issue with how our photos appear in print. 

For a number of issues, our photos and illustrations have printed darker than intended. Not only does this bring into question the journalistic integrity of telling stories as accurately as possible via visuals, but has also had a larger unintended impact—affecting the depiction of Black, Indigenous and people of color featured in our photos. For this, we must apologize. 

While we would like to say this is a new issue with our new printer, the fact is the Oracle has been having similar issues regardless of who has been conducting our printing. This issue has been highlighted as  we are still becoming accustomed to the new settings in our printer’s software. Even with a new printer, old challenges can still resurface. We want to take on this serious issue with the magnitude it deserves, and use it as a chance to express that  we are working to improve our communication with our readers about problems we are facing, and how we are working to fix them.

We would like to extend an apology to the numerous people of color whom we have featured in photographs and illustrations that have felt we did not depict them in their truest form. While it has never been our intention to do so, the impact it has had cannot be understated. We are continuing to work with our photo and printer settings to figure out how to combat this problem, and we are confident that this issue will be resolved quickly. 

For those who have any questions, comments or concerns about this issue please contact us at oracle@hamline.edu. 

The Oracle Editorial Staff

Jacob “Coby” Aloi: Multimedia Editor 

Ollie Koski: A&E Editor

Anika Besst: News Editor 

Cathryn Salis: Sports Editor

Leo Coughenour: Variety Editor

Robin Doyscher: Opinion Editor

Elizabeth Lowe: Managing Editor