By Robert Ramnauth (Editor-in-Chief)
Robert Ramnauth, Media Arts student
Is it over already?
It seems like only yesterday I was wondering how I was going to be able to put together four issues of the Whetstone, keep the paper’s Web site running smoothly, and manage a staff. Now that things have finally calmed down, I have a chance to reflect on the events of the semester.
The biggest change has come in the form of the Web site. Visitors can leave comments and watch videos that they wouldn’t be able to with the print editions of the paper. The stat tracker has shown that with the release of each new issue, traffic spikes. It’s definitely something students are interested in, and I hope it will continue to grow in the future.
Another big change came with the second issue, which was 12 pages, the largest it’s been in recent memory. I haven’t heard such positive feedback about an issue since I started working on the paper two years ago. It was very encouraging, misspelled headline and all.
Then things got a little crazy. After some behind-the-scenes drama, one of my writers unfortunately quit. Shortly after, my layout editor quit due to personal reasons. It was all ironic, considering the content of my editorial in the second issue (on the nature of change). It was like a test of my ability to keep things running smoothly despite the setbacks.
I responded by canceling the planned fourth issue, and pushed the third issue back a few weeks in order to give myself time to learn how to work on layout myself. I’m still really disappointed that I couldn’t manage to meet my goal of four issues over the semester, but I didn’t want to compromise the quality of the paper in order to publish more frequently.
I won’t be able to judge how well I did until this last issue is delivered to the student body and I get to hear feedback.
The semester has also proven to be interesting in terms of the way I approached my role as editor-in-chief. I came to terms with the fact that I’m more of a stepping stone for the future of the paper than I am someone who is going to be remembered for any groundbreaking stories.
There were no administrative cover-ups of on-campus rapes; no instances of plagiarism by the President of the college; and the Student Government Association didn’t break any rules (as far as we know). Groundbreaking news was sparser than I expected.
This allowed me to make the Whetstone feature-oriented. My background as a writer has been feature stories, and I feel that students respond more to that style.
As much as managing the staff and getting them familiar with journalistic writing and reporting, it’s been my role to prepare the Whetstone for the next people to take over. I’ve been open with my staff about the reasons I make certain editorial choices, and I’ve always welcome their feedback.
If I’ve done my job right, they all have at least a basic understanding of what it takes to run the paper; at most, they understand if they keeping trying, any one of them has the potential to help run it in the near future.
The writers have definitely been a huge reason for the positive response to the paper this semester. They’ve been good about deadlines, staying in touch with me, contributing ideas for stories, and rolling with last-minute assignments. They’ve done an awesome job. Their work coupled with my layout editor’s vision for the new, “clean†style of the paper and has helped make it fresh and exciting.
I’m also glad that my advisor talked me into becoming editor-in-chief. At first I was pretty hesitant about it, but it was worth it.
My next step is graduate school. I’m looking to get back to my roots in creative writing. I want to write scripts for television shows and movies one day, a far cry from journalism.
See you in the real world.
