Anyone is welcome to submit letters to the editor, quotes, poems to the Viewpoint department of The Observer. Items submitted by members of the Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s community will be given preference for publication.

The opinions expressed in the Viewpoint section are not necessarily those of The Observer. Regular columnists, those whose columns appear on a regular basis; guest columnists, those whose columns do not appear on a regular basis; letters to the editor; poems and quotes are commentaries.

Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the majority of the editor in chief, managing editor, assistant managing editor and department editors. The House Editorial Guidelines are included in the House Editorial Policy.

All commentaries submitted to The Observer must include the signature and phone number of the author. Letters to the editor may not exceed 350 words and columns may not exceed 800 words. Exceptions are made at the discretion of the Viewpoint editor. The Viewpoint editor may shorten any letter or column regardless of length or deem it worthy of print in its entirety.

All material submitted to the Viewpoint department becomes the property of The Observer. Any further use of these commentaries without the written consent of The Observer is prohibited. Not-for-profit organizations, those organizations which have a reciprocal usage agreement and those organizations of which The Observer is a member may be granted permission to publish commentaries with the permission of the editor in chief or the permission of the Managing editor and the Viewpoint editor.

The Viewpoint department reserves the right to edit all commentaries. The Observer has no obligation to print submitted commentaries. Such works will not be printed if they are libelous, unintelligible or irrelevant.

Relevance will be determined with respect to interest of a particular issue on a local, national, or world level, extension of existing issues on the Viewpoint pages, and/or role in fostering spirited and intelligent discussion. A disclaimer will appear with any letter deemed highly graphic, profane or discriminatory, yet nonetheless relevant. The disclaimer will appear at the beginning of the letter and will alert readers to the serious nature of the piece in question.

Commentaries submitted as letters to the editor may not exceed three in number from the same individual or organization within the same academic semester. There is no limit to the number of times an individual or organization may have their commentaries ap-pear in print as columnists.

All commentaries printed in the Viewpoint section must be verified before publication. It is not guaranteed that authors of columns, letters to the editor, quotes and poems will be notified before their work is printed in The Observer.

Only those individuals authorized to speak as representatives for a group will be allowed to use the organiza-tion’s name. In such cases, the primary author(s) of the commentary is (are) the individual(s), and the commentary is, in effect, co-signed by the organization.

Commentaries which appear in the Viewpoint section may not have been printed previously in other news-papers, magazines or publications. In exceptions, the author of the previously printed material must give legal, written consent. Work from organizations of which The Observer is a member, quotations used for commentaries, “Quote of the Day” and syndicated columns are excluded from this procedure.

Paid employees of The Observer are not permitted to have their commentaries appear in the Viewpoint section as letters to the editor. Regular columnists and members of the Viewpoint staff also are not eligible to have their commentaries appear in the Viewpoint section as letters to the editor. The status of such individuals is determined by the Viewpoint editor.

Any questions or concerns regarding The Observer Viewpoint policies should be directed to the Viewpoint editor.