University of Wisconsin-Madison students are frequently reminded of the phrase coined by the Board of Regents in 1894: “…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”

Apparently those words never made it north.

Last week, the Advance-Titan of UW-Oshkosh and The Pointer of UW-Stevens Point chose not to run an advertisement from the Human Life Alliance, an anti-abortion group. The ad, a 12-page insert, contained reasonable messages intended to educate students about their recommendations for coping with an unwanted pregnancy without destroying innocent life. It also contained more questionable messages, such as claiming that abortions increase a woman’s chances of breast cancer.

The Advance-Titan didn’t run the advertisement because, to quote Editor in Chief Andrew Munger, it did not “provide a service of any sort, just an ideology.” Pointer Editor in Chief Jacob Mathias shared those sentiments, but added his staff also intended to avoid controversy.

Mr. Munger is dead wrong. This insert would have provided a service — a stimulating discussion about abortion among college students, who tend to be pro-choice. And if The Pointer staff and Mr. Mathias chose not to run the ad because of the “controversy” it may have caused, they are cowards.

Pro-Life Wisconsin, the anti-abortion advocacy group that offered HLA’s ad insert, seems to think these newspapers are showing a “bias” against its viewpoints. But since Mr. Mathis said he himself is pro-life, this is much worse than a bias — it is an embarrassment to journalism. The decision was made independently of the newspaper’s funding source, namely UW-Stevens Point.

Newspapers exist to perform many functions, one of which includes serving as a public forum. The Badger Herald has received its fair share of intimidation in the past for running ads that have caused “controversy” – the MultiCultural Student Coalition still boycotts us for a David Horowitz ad we ran nearly a decade ago that slammed reparations for slavery.

But we know it is the job of a newspaper to make sure all voices are heard, not just the ones our audience wants to hear. This is even truer as a college newspaper.

We, like our colleagues in Oshkosh and Stevens Point, have a responsibility to the students, staff and faculty of our campuses to provide all sides of an argument in an effort to promote a healthy learning environment — whether that be by running a variety of opinion columns or running advertisements from interested parties. This includes material that might prove extremely offensive to some parties.

That is what “sifting and winnowing” means. And we hope the Advance-Titan and Pointer keep that in mind.