We at The Daily Eastern News believe in our reporting and the fact that we are providing a service to our readers by informing them of what is happening at Eastern.

To make this happen, though, we need the cooperation of Eastern’s officials, students and community members to be able to relay and explain the information.

We would like to thank our sources for speaking with us and helping us do our jobs, and while we are at it, we want to condemn actions that Florida International University’s athletic communications staff has been doing for a couple years now.

Dalton Tevlin, the sports director for PantherNOW (the student publication of FIU), said for a couple years, the relationship between the athletic communications staff and student media has been bad.

Tevlin also said the athletic communications staff has not responded to numerous emails and texts from the publication. He continued and said phone calls have been ignored, and that the athletic communications staff has given reporters misleading information.

Firstly, this is an unprofessional way to conduct business. The athletic communications staff does not have to like coverage, but just ignoring and even giving misleading information to media is unprofessional and childish.

Second, as Tevlin points out in his article that was published online Aug. 29, the media is trying to provide a service for the students, faculty and fans who want or need everything about their football team.

Press, good or bad, is still a way for whomever the subject is to get whatever out there to the public.

Any school, much less any team, should want its name out in the public realm as much as possible.

Fans, students and faculty can get the statistics and results online for every game, but media is the place to get more detail and understanding and analysis of the team to truly get the whole scope of the games and team.

Lastly, Tevlin said the student publication has not been given any reason as to why it is being shut out from coverage.

Again, this is an unprofessional way to handle a tense situation, and at least a reason why should be given.

We stand in support of our fellow student journalists at FIU and implore the athletics communication department to reconsider.

These are college students trying to provide free coverage for your team; you should want them to cover football—one of the biggest collegiate sports.

They are also students trying to prepare themselves for their future careers, so blocking them is doubly affecting their lives right now.

The Editorial Staff can be reached at 581-2812 or at dennewsdesk@gmail.com.