The Warrior, Marquette University's newest student newspaper, distributed 2,000 copies of its monthly newspaper around campus last week, provoking controversy and debate over whether the paper is inherently conservative in its approach.

"I do honestly believe that we're biased only towards the truth," Diana Sroka, The Warrior's editor in chief, said. "We don't take any partisanship in our mission statement."

Although the paper is funded by a start-up grant from the politically conservative Leadership Institute — the same organization which funds UW-Madison's openly right-wing Mendota Beacon — Sroka was unsure why some labeled her paper as conservative.

"Maybe it's because Milwaukee is so liberal and the Marquette Tribune is considered so liberal," she suggested, referring to the Jesuit university's more established student publication.

In its mission statement, the Leadership Institute pledges to "identify, recruit, train and place conservatives in politics, government and media."

Ben Wetmore, director of student publications for the institute, said while there is no political litmus test for a paper to pass to receive a grant, he would expect the majority to be conservative.

"Being that we train predominantly conservatives, we offer the grant to people who have been through our programs," Wetmore said. "Since we're not in the business of training liberals, [we'd expect] that most of the applications we have are from conservatives."

Marquette spokesperson Brigid O'Brien Miller said the university is happy to see any additional platform for its students to exercise their freedom of speech in a constructive manner.

"Multiple media on campus is not a new thing, and we certainly welcome students expressing their opinions in constructive ways," Miller said. "It's every student's right to express their opinions in constructive ways."

The university has not necessarily welcomed The Warrior with open arms, however, as Miller said the publication will not be granted the same privilege as the Tribune to distribute on campus.

"It was distributed off campus on public property … because it's not published by a recognized student organization," she said. "The Marquette Tribune is the student newspaper published through the College of Communications commenting on campus events."

According to Sroka, the Marquette community has a need for a second newspaper because there's always a need for more information and added another outlet for opinion and for discussion can never be a bad thing.

"[The Tribune] is a student newspaper and it is something that the university puts money or puts faculty members on, so you don't really have the same type of freedom that an independent paper like ours has," she said.

Referencing her own experience with the Tribune, Sroka also questioned the motives of some of the Tribune staff, accusing some of working for the paper only to pad their journalistic resumes.

"Most of our members or staff members are not journalism majors," she said. "They just have this passion for information."

Addressing a contentious issue for Marquette since the university changed its nickname from the "Warriors" to the "Golden Eagles" in the early 1990s, Sroka said the paper's title is not intended to indicate a conservative mindset on the name-change issue.

"Eighty-four percent of Marquette students and alumni identified themselves with the name 'Warrior,'" Sroka said, referring to a recent study. "Eighty-four percent of the Marquette campus and alumni are not conservative."

Based on that study, Sroka said they chose the name because they felt it most accurately reflected the attitude of the university community.