5 Student Newspaper New Year’s Resolutions for 2013

Be productive. Find a point to pointlessness. And fool around a bit.  These are teasers from a few of the tips offered recently by student journalists.

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As fall semester and this calendar year came to a close, editors, and columnists at campus newspapers nationwide earnestly reflected on lessons learned, experiences undertaken, and dreams that lay ahead. In some cases, their reflections double as de facto New Year’s resolutions for their student peers to consider.

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Below is a sampling of these resolutions, all of them appearing late last semester within student newspaper columns and op-eds.

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Be Productive Over Break.  As The Minnesota Daily editorial board at the University of Minnesota advises, “[W]hile break is certainly a good time for well-deserved rest, it’s also important to take advantage of our free time and use it productively. Spending some time looking for scholarships, applying for jobs or internships, polishing résumés, and planning out the rest of the year are important tasks that most of us will eventually have to complete. Therefore, over break, we might as well get them done before homework, exams, and those pestering online quizzes overly burden us.”

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Enjoy Being Pointless Every Once in A While.  As Duke University junior Lillie Reid argues in The Duke Chronicle, “I’m not saying that having goals and working to attain them is bad. Caring about things and working to do well are possibly the most important attributes of a successful person. The problem arises when we take it too far—when everything has to have a goal-directed point.  When we get so caught up getting what we want that we lose sight of ourselves. . . . Don’t take yourself too seriously. Just because something doesn’t directly contribute to achieving a goal, it doesn’t mean that it’s not worth doing. There is a point to pointlessness.”

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Brace for Change.  As Christopher Witten writes in The Daily Helmsman about his own experiences at the University of Memphis, “[T]here’s one thing I wish I had known when I was a freshman, or more so just been aware of: everything was going to change– my group of friends, my attitude towards college and even my major (a few times), and most of all the university. The school I feared for so long would become my home. So take it from someone who’s done this a time or two: brace for change.”

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Cornell University senior Katerina Athanasiou agrees with Witten, noting in The Cornell Daily Sun, “College is a nomadic time. Every six to ten months, we pack up our things to relocate, whether it be from Ithaca to home, or to a new apartment just a few blocks away, or to another hemisphere for a semester. We are in constant motion. We are always moving in to new places and acquiring stuff to make them homes. This might be the ideal time to reconsider what you own and what you actually need.”

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Fool Around a Little Bit.  As Florida State University student Samantha Husted tells underclassmen especially in the FSView & Florida Flambeau, “Your sophomore and freshmen years are a time when you’re supposed to fool around a little bit. Go-out-to-that-party-even-though-you-have-a-test-the-next-morning kind of thing. There’s a lot of room for mistakes and it’s the time when you’re allowed to make a few rash decisions. You’re even allotted a few embarrassing moments that you may or may not regret but will most likely turn into a funny story 20 years from now. It’s during this time that you’re supposed to get not all, but a lot of that craziness out of your semester before you have to face your junior and senior year.”

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Believe in Yourself.  As University of Arkansas senior Saba Naseem writes in The Arkansas Traveler, “Keep your head up and hold on to your dreams. Giving up is the ultimate failure. You won’t achieve anything that way. I’ve realized that perhaps I won’t achieve my goals the way I planned, but there are other avenues, and perhaps this is an opportunity for me to explore those. There is something out there for everybody. It’s just a matter of determination, of patience and believing in yourself.”

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Memphis President Orders Investigation Into Helmsman Newspaper Funding Cut

University of Memphis president Shirley Raines has called for an investigation into the sudden, dramatic funding cut to The Daily Helmsman student newspaper.

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As I recently posted, a Memphis student fees allocation committee overseen by a small group of administrators and undergraduate leaders slashed Helmsman funding by $25,000 for the upcoming academic year– a full third of the usual fees assistance the paper receives.  Some current and former Helmsman staffers and Memphis alums view the cutback as possible retaliation for its no-holds-barred editorial content.

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This outlook has been emboldened by the public and private grumblings of Memphis officials and student government members toward the paper’s recent reporting– including stories rightfully attacking the admins. and SG– and a perceived lack of coverage that “promotes student activities.”

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Now, according to a Student Press Law Center report, Raines has requested an internal review of the matter.  In her words, “Even though it is my understanding that the committee’s initial decision to cut the Helmsman’s funding was not based on the content of the newspaper, I want to be sure that this is the case.”

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The Commercial Appeal also weighed in with an editorial headlined “Stifling the Press?“:

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“An independent press is essential, even on a college campus.  College newspapers like the Daily Helmsman at the University of Memphis provide a valuable resource for reporting happenings on university campuses– the good and the bad; the controversial and the benign. . . . Besides being an objective news voice about campus issues and events, the Helmsman serves as a real-life training ground for journalism students. The Student Government Association and the allocation committee apparently would like to see the Daily Helmsman become more of a fluff sheet.  But responsible, independent journalism in cities and on university campuses is about reporting on a wide range of issues, and not just being a bugle call for organizations that think coverage of their events should be a priority.”

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The $25,000 Question: Was Daily Helmsman Funding Cut at Memphis Due to Content Concerns?

The University of Memphis has slashed funding for The Daily Helmsman by $25,000 for the upcoming academic year, a full third of the usual financial assistance the paper receives from student activities fees.  Some current and former staffers of the campus newspaper view the dramatic cutback as possible retaliation for controversial editorial content.

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According to a Commercial Appeal story earlier today, Memphis administrators and members of the student government have publicly and privately expressed their unhappiness at the paper’s recent coverage and a perceived lack of focus on UM.  UM’s dean of students: “I can’t begin to tell you the examples that came up in [a recent meeting with the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee] about things that the paper did print that seem to have very little relevance or that seemed to touch very, very few students on the campus.”

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Hmm.  Those concerns seem strange, nay ridonkulously wrong, given the amount of high-profile stories the Helmsman broke and reported upon over the past year alone.  Staffers spotlit serious campus issues involving everything from retention rates, athletics revenue (or lack of it), and potential crime reporting violations to student-athlete misconduct oversights, student ID card theft, and a rape in an on-campus apartment carried out by an individual living there under the guise of being a UM student.  The list goes on…

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So, what’s really going on here?  Helmsman general manager Candy Justice says censorship: “It’s a First Amendment violation.  It’s just one more example of what the Helmsman has to put up with.”

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The university says editorial concerns were not part of the fee allocation committee’s funding decision, pointing out there was an overall drop in available funding for all campus groups.

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Justice told the Commercial Appeal the Helmsman may be forced to cut publishing days or staff pay due to the budget chop.

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Biggest College Media Villain, Fall 2009

This is the third installment of a multi-post glimpse back at the highlights and lowlights of fall 2009 in collegemediatopia.

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Biggest College Media Villain: Bobby Hauck, University of Montana

Last semester, University of Montana football coach Bobby Hauck (who recently accepted a job at UNLV) threw a prolonged temper tantrum aimed directly at the student press. He temporarily refused to speak to The Montana Kaimin, the school’s student newspaper, and instructed his team and staff to boycott the publication as well. Why? Because, wait for it, Kaimin staffers had the gall to not only publish an accurate story about two football players’ alleged misdeeds but also then ask Hauck some tame football questions at press conferences.  (His “behavioral stupidity” received a hilarious editorial smackdown from SI’s Jeff Pearlman.)

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Runner-up honors go to Robert Caret, the president of Towson University. Near the middle of last semester, Caret publicly criticized the inclusion of a sex column in The Towerlight student newspaper and threatened to pull needed university funding from the paper if it continued running. It was callous, censorious posturing that did nothing but inflame tensions and put Towson in the spotlight as a school boasting leaders who believe more in the “censor’s arbitrary fist” than editorial freedom.

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Finally, this villainous list must include Jennifer Burton, the sister of a University of Memphis student suspected of burning a rainbow flag last November outside the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center. Burton said she “absolutely” trashed hundreds- possibly thousands- of copies of The Daily Helmsman that featured a story on her brother’s alleged wrongdoing to somewhat lessen his embarrassment. While I can understand sisterly instincts, her steal-and-toss MO was still hella-wrong and of course ultimately worked to bring yet more attention to her brother’s terrible behavior.

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