It’s Saturday night, 11:49 p.m.

I’ve been sitting in my room for the past five hours perusing 89 pages of reader responses to The Daily survey sent to all undergraduates several weeks ago.

Some comments were curt. Others were lengthy. All were worthwhile to read. More than 2,000 students replied to the survey, many posting candid remarks about their campus newspaper.

“My fucking high school newspaper was several times better than this shit, no joke,” wrote one student.

“You’re doing a great job!” wrote another.

A particularly descriptive student encouraged The Daily staff to “grow some testicular fortitude” when reporting on tough issues.

One student advised me to “shitcan every writer on staff and hire good ones,” while another encouraged The Daily to “keep on keepin’ on.”

I am disturbed about some of the hostility expressed toward The Daily via this survey, but I am also very excited. If everyone told me The Daily was perfect, then I’d have nothing to do except sit around all summer. I might as well go to the beach.

One of the trickiest criticisms regarded The Daily’s coverage of the resident Greek community.

Opinions about Greeks and from Greeks appeared on nearly every page of the survey. The only clear theme was the frequency.

“No more Greek life articles,” wrote one student. “It’s such a pathetic ‘lifestyle’ that gets glorified way too much in The Daily.”

Another asked for more coverage:

“The Daily completely overlooks all of the awesome positive stuff that the Greek community does every day! The Daily should assign a reporter to the Greek community full time.”

One student asked for coverage decided by student demographics.

“If Greeks make up five percent of the student population, then stories about Greeks should only appear about five percent of the time for an entire quarter.”

There are roughly 3,300 Greeks and about 40,000 total students at the UW, according to the UW Web site.

This means about one in every 12 stories should be relevant to Greek life. Considering that I previously ran the news section with about three stories per day (excluding columns), I should average at least one Greek story per week.

Many respondents took issue with the content of Greek-related stories rather than the quantity of coverage. Students accused us of pandering to Greek interests or, conversely, sitting in our office spewing forth vitriolic, anti-Greek stories.

“Not every Greek story has to be about negatives of Greek life,” a student wrote.

“We aren’t just a bunch of alcoholic dumbasses, … so don’t portray us like that,” wrote another.

At The Daily, we subscribe to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. Briefly, this means we must seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable to readers.

I encourage readers to post comments regarding The Daily and our coverage of the Greek system.

Is our coverage too negative or too positive? What constitutes negativity or positivity, and who is the judge? What is an appropriate way to report about Greek life? What is fair or unfair about our reporting? Does The Daily have an ulterior motive beyond reporting the truth about Greek life? Is The Daily representative of all student views?

Hold us accountable.

[Reach reporter Andrew Doughman at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]