The contributions from the CCSU students majoring in journalism have been outstanding. Outstandingly lacking. As another year passes on our academic calendar most of the students in the program have nothing to show for it.
If you’re reading this and you are a faculty member teaching a JRN course, don’t take the following the wrong way: Your class isn’t the be all and end all of journalism. A student doesn’t learn enough solely writing in the classroom. It’s not practical.
There have been countless times that a student came into our office and needed to be told what to do. There hand needed to be held throughout the entire story writing process. It’s not a true reflection of the capabilities of these students. They can write, but they can’t report. Being put in a situation where you have to report makes you learn how to do it better than any lecture.
While this paper should remain completely independent, it should also be an extension of the classroom. Take the skills you learn in class and bring them to us.
So where did we go wrong? Why did we only reach a handful of writers? It’s assumed that these students should want to write, but they don’t show that desire. The burden now falls on this staff to sell ourselves to the journalism students. Let’s repeat that. A student newspaper has to sell itself to ‘journalism’ students who should want to write for a publication any chance they get in order to gain experience and collect clips for future resumes. Isn’t this their desired career?
Why does this disconnect exist? If we had the answer, I’m sure we wouldn’t be running this editorial right now.
There are two types of people at this university. There are those who are aggressive and want to make the most of their time here and there are those who want nothing to do with that. Think about it in the following manner. There are over 60 journalism majors and dozens more minors, but we only have a handful who come to the meetings, let alone write for the paper. Unless they are getting their work printed in other publications, they have no clips to show to potential employers.
Most of The Recorder’s editorial staff is made up of non-journalism majors. We’re comprised of English majors, communication majors, psychology majors and business majors. That’s not usual for a campus newspaper and quite frankly shouldn’t be. Journalism majors on this campus should be battling for The Recorder’s editorial positions. Instead, they sit vacant for more than a semester, sometimes handed to someone who can only fill the roll as a stopgap.
Are they going to show a paper they handed in to a JRN 200 class as their past experience? We certainly hope not, but it’s making the job prospects in the surrounding area much more enticing and available to those who have put in the hours doing real reporting and editing here at The Recorder. Who is an editor going to hire, someone who has dozens of quality clips and years of college newspaper experience or someone whose only journalism experience is once a week in Willard 214? You should know the answer.
If you’re one of the few students who actually sees this paper as the strong resource it can be and is writing for us, we thank you for staying with us this year. For those who haven’t been down to see us, we welcome you in the future. There’s always next year. Stop putting off your actor profiles and news features. You’ll be the ones thanking us in the future.
Several students formerly of this staff have landed jobs in the area as reporters due to the work and time they put in here. Their resumes were built on the basis of their work at The Recorder and the great internships they attained because of that experience. No one cares what grade point average you have if you haven’t put in the time doing real life reporting at the college level.
We’ve spent an entire year trying to promote the growth of campus involvement. While our words might read as being harsh, we like to think of it as looking out for you. Get your act together and start proving that journalism truly is the major meant for you.