COLUMN: Student-run papers are still relevant
I started the school year with a column outlining the changes The Utah Statesman would see in 2012-13. We went from three issues a week to two and reduced the size of our staff – and as much as those changes impacted us, there’s a greater change in store for the paper next year.
Jay Wamsley, our publisher and faculty adviser, retires this summer after 31 years at the paper. Though students produce most of the paper’s content, Wamsley has been the soul and the backbone of The Statesman, and we will miss him.
A number of questions arise from the news of Wamsley’s retirement, and at the moment the student journalists here don’t have many answers. At the very least, readers may see a different influence on the paper’s design and branding. The number of issues we print may change – and it’s not likely to increase. The print edition may drop from newsstands altogether. There have been rumors that the paper will work more closely with AggieRadio, the student-run web radio station. As a new department head takes charge in journalism and communication, I suppose there’s a chance the paper will work more closely with that department than it has in the past.
Again, I don’t know what the changes will be or how much they will affect student journalists.
I hope the people with influence over the changes – Student Services officials, Wamsley’s replacement and other Statesman readers who can give input – will keep in mind the paper’s potential to help student writers and photographers. The articles student journalists publish are as crucial in job interviews as capstone projects. Editors working for the paper learn to manage their writers and design newspaper layouts. Photographers add variety to their portfolios as they cover a myriad of events and issues on campus. And though everyone who works for the paper could be considered a student journalist, not all are journalism majors. In my time at the paper, staff members from majors such as English and political science have gained experience here as well.
As marketers and public relations workers get better at what they do, organizations pay more attention to the information they release. The temptation to censor or lessen the independence of a student newspaper is understandable. From time to time, The Utah Statesman has printed articles focusing on ugly aspects of the university. I hope whatever changes the paper will undergo in the coming months will respect the student journalists’ desire to better our community by writing negative stories as well as positive ones.
-Steve Kent is editor in chief and a senior majoring in journalism. Contact him at steve.kent@aggiemail.usu.edu