13. What is the most important thing you have learned this semester being on newspaper staff?
This semester, I think that the most important thing I learned on staff was how to hold people accountable for getting things done. Last year I had a lot of problems with getting people to get their stories done on time so that I would have plenty of time to put them on the page. This past issue, the same problem came up because of issues I had with pictures, so next semester I'll be sure to hold photographers accountable to.
14. What can you do next semester to continue your scholastic journalism career in a fulfilling and positive way? For those of you leaving the program at the semester break, what specific problems did you have in being an active member of staff (please be specific, my sincere hope is that students don't drop this program and I want to come up with some solutions for why some people have decided to leave)?
Next semester, I'm going to be a lot more responsible with my duties for the paper. I'll be sure to get my stories and interviews done as early as possible and make sure people for my page are doing the same thing. I'll also try to take as much pictures for my page as I can, because then I'll know that I have the pictures taken and where they are.
15. What suggestions do you have to improve any part of this class? For example, you could address editor/staff relations, editor/editor relations, staff relations with the advisor, how we can better serve our community, direct suggestions on the newspaper itself, equipment or supplies we might need, computer program instructions you need, or even stories we should cover. I am open to anything. Part of my job is to make this a positive experience, yet it is also an educational opportunity for all of you and the other part of my job is to teach you new skills. Again, for those of you leaving the program, I am looking for realistic ideas on how to improve the experience so that we do not continue to lose people.
I don't really know if there's a lot we can do relations-wise, but I think that teaching people, especially staff writers, how important it is to get the paper out will help. The first issue we were able to have the deadline pushed back, and I think that that taught people that weren't on staff last year that it was okay to not finish their things in time. As a result of this, almost every issue has had stories that didn't get finished, and editors had to scramble to get the stories finished days before deadline or find a completely new story. This didn't happen nearly as much last year, and it might just be because there was less people, but I think that the way the newspaper runs this year is a lot sloppier and that holding people accountable for what they need to do will help that a lot.
