The Merciad staff appreciates Mr. Summy’s concerns and shares his belief that health care is a vital issue of our time.

It was not covered more fully in last week’s issue because we attempt to focus our coverage toward on-campus issues that most directly affect the college and its student population. National news, particularly densely worded, reform-bill rhetoric, is not the easiest prose to tackle in a student paper. The turnaround time to produce an informative article on such a complex, comprehensive, nation-affecting issue is simply too difficult, especially since, as Mr. Ruic has written, “It is unlikely that a single one of the Representatives who voted for, or against, the bill can hope to truly understand its effects.”

What we are actively trying to do to remedy our lack of immediate coverage is to offer a more thoughtful, substantive package in the issues to come. Our first issue back from Easter vacation, scheduled for April 14, is slotted to focus a great deal of our space toward understanding the impact of health care through a number of perspectives.

In the news section, our planned coverage includes talking to administrators about how nationalized health care, in particular changes to the student loan program, could change college costs for students. To go along with this article, we intend to actively poll students on the introduction of health care reform and how they think it will be perceived next year, at re-election time and 50 years from now.

In the opinion section, we want to hear not only from students, but also from the resident experts – our faculty. All students and professors who want to contribute to the debate are welcome to contact us at opinionmerciad@mercyhurst.edu or copymerciad@mercyhurst.edu.

The implications of health care are myriad and thorny. It is unfair to ask professors – or thoughtful writers of any stripe – to produce knee-jerk reactions and hypothetical theories to the murky jargon of polarizing politics. The Merciad has attempted to take the high road, taking our time to produce quality coverage of what we agree is possibly the year’s biggest news event.

We hope Mr. Summy and all readers look forward to The Merciad’s issues to come.