Robert Turner, deputy managing editor of Boston Globe editorial pages, spoke to a small group of students yesterday in Herter Hall about the many issues today’s editorial writers take on.

Turner said he has written editorials directed at the Globe’s own editors, specifically the news department’s lack of focus on policy coverage during current Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s election campaign. Turner said he believed the news drifted too much into a focus on Romney’s Mormon religion.

According to Turner, one thing the editorial department strives for is accuracy. “My own instinct is to be on top of the news,” he said.

Turner referenced a highly discussed error in last week’s New York Post early editions after the conclusion of Game 7 of the ALCS between the Red Sox and Yankees in which an editorial bemoaning the Yankees loss was featured. However, the Yankees won that night, and according to Turner, a member of the Post accidentally hit a wrong button that caused the erroneous issues to be dispersed to the public.

“We never are quite sure how to measure the impact of editorials,” he said. “[But] we want to be part of the debate. One thing we want to do is to try to write editorials that have some backbone to them.”

Turner said the department wants to provide the public with an argument they haven’t read a hundred times before, so they have some impact. He said he wants people to pause for a second before skipping the editorial page.

According to Turner, one example would be to call for legislation. Turner said the Globe’s editorial pages have called for a statewide ban on the use of handheld cell phones while driving. Turner said he believes drivers who engage in handheld cell phone conversations while driving are indistinguishable from drunken drivers.

But Turner said a major project that he became interested in is the surface of the “Big Dig” in Boston, an issue he has been involved with for the last few years. Turner said he became intrigued by the potential of what was going to go on its surface – a space that is to become available to urban planners.

“Wouldn’t it be a good idea to make something special out of it?” he asked.

According to Turner, it was something he wrote extensively about for the Globe’s editorial page. Turner said the Globe and Massachusetts Institute of Technology put together forums with national experts who were confronted with the questions of what to do about the waterfront and other various aspects of the city’s future. According to him, it was an endeavor that tied the editorial pages and the news department together, an unusual assimilation of two very different entities.

The Globe has also worked in conjunction with Boston’s Channel 5 “The Chronicle” series.

“I don’t think there’s been anything comparable to the extent that it contains so many different elements,” he said.

Turner acknowledged that questions might be raised about whether it was appropriate for a newspaper to engage in such a campaign. But, he said, it was a campaign without a specific goal or desire for the Globe.

“What we wanted was excellence,” he said. “We felt it wasn’t compromising.” Turner said in the end, the city thought the results were very positive.

According to Turner, the surface area of the Big Dig is likely to feature some open lawns for people to stretch out and throw a Frisbee.

“For an urban area, it’s got to be more heavily programmed than that.” Turner has mentioned the possibility of a high-volume restaurant for the area in the Globe’s editorials.

There are four different groups in charge of the outcome, Turner said.

“One thing we’ve been pushing for is more coordination,” he said. “There isn’t enough continuity … nobody knows whose in charge.”

According to him, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority presently has the major clout. Turner said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino claims to want a larger role, but he doesn’t want the responsibility of managing the budget.

“The city control is crucial to their success,” he said. “That was obviously not happening and still isn’t.”

Another portion of the discussion concerned the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams that are mandatory for Massachusetts’s high school students to pass prior to graduation.

According to Turner, the Globes’ editorial staff has been fairly consistent regarding this subject from the start. Turner said the difficulty with the test is that some people feel it is narrowing, focusing only on English and Math; the fear is that some kids who fail will really be hurt and branded by it.

Turner said the editorial staff at the Globe felt the upside of a carefully worked out standard of minimum competency was simple. “I think the results support our position that MCAS is doing more good than harm,” he said. Turner said he believes there is a stronger sense of accomplishment when a student graduates without just being handed a diploma; a high school diploma has a higher value than it did two years ago.

Turner said the Globe’s editorial staff has also taken a hard stance on the graduation requirement not being lowered for special needs kids.

“We feel a high school diploma should mean a certain competency at a certain level,” he said.

A native of north metro Boston, Turner began work for the Globe in 1965. He has been the chief editorial writer for the past nine years.