The Daily Mississippian has received a high volume of guest columns and letters to the editor  over the past few days regarding Ed Meek’s controversial comments. Thank you all for reaching out to us and including us in this important campus conversation. Thank you for choosing our platform to amplify your voices. We hear you and are looking forward to publishing as many of these submissions as possible. As the story continues to develop, however, our staff has deemed some of these letters and columns outdated or not fit to publish, given new circumstances and the position taken by our staff editorial. Our staff is also taking some extra time this week to thoroughly vet these submissions and to confirm the identities of their various authors.

This week, we are introducing an updated process for responding to authors of letters to the editor and guest columns. We hope this more thorough publishing process will increase our transparency and improve our ability to represent the Ole Miss community’s voice. If you’ve written a letter or submitted a column to us this week, I hope this explains why you may not have seen your words published yet. We look forward to reading more of these columns and moving toward answers to the many questions that have surfaced in reaction to this critical story. Our inboxes are open, and I encourage all community members to share what you have to say. Open and honest conversation will be crucial as our editorial staff moves forward in its response to Meek’s comments. We are listening.

Slade Rand