At Idaho, editorials reign supreme.

Editorials are the strong suit of the University of Idaho's student newspaper, the Argonaut. In contrast to some of its neighboring papers, the twice-weekly independent paper has a strong editorial board that produces at least one hard-hitting editorial per issue.

The keys to the Argonaut's success: planning, a willingness to talk through issues before writing about them, and a cartoonist whose sight gags and pointed barbs reinforce the verbal arguments.

The paper's three top editors make up the editorial board, which meets twice a week immediately following the staff's news huddle. The board attempts to choose editorial topics two weeks (four issues) in advance but is open to changing direction if news breaks, said Jennifer Hathaway, a 2004 UI graduate who was opinion editor for two years.

Events on campus during Hathaway's tenure gave her plenty to write about. The university's president resigned in 2003 after a real estate deal for a Boise branch campus went sour. Budget cuts led to larger classes and almost eliminated the studio arts program. The FBI arrested a graduate student from Saudi Arabia, accusing him of providing support to terrorist groups. (He was later acquitted.)

Hathaway and her colleagues, editor-in-chief Brian Passey and managing editor Jake Alger, discussed topics, forging the best arguments and taking dissenting opinions into account. The resulting editorials were signed with the writer's initials--a practice used at the Lewiston Morning Tribune, which circulates widely in the UI's hometown of Moscow.

A summary of each editorial is sent to editorial cartoonist Noah Kroese, whom Passey described as the page's "secret weapon." Even if readers disagree with the editorial, "they love his artwork," Passey said. Sometimes Kroese's cartoon prompted Passey to go back to the editorial and add a point that had been missed in the original discussion. Another feature on the page, a "Speak Out" by the paper's photo editor, includes five or six students' opinions on a question related to the editorial's topic.

The Argonaut staff's writing ability was recognized by the judges of the Idaho Press Club's 2003 competition for student newspapers. Hathaway took first place for editorial writing, Passey took first for columns and third for editorials, and Alger took third for column writing.