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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2000)
Monday Editor in chief: Jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541)346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu EDITORIAL EDITOR: opededitor@journalist.com, Michael Kleckner we do what we do The pungent odor from a 79-cent can of tuna fish wafts through the Oregon Daily Emerald office, chomping at the collective sense of smell like an angry barracuda. One of the reporters must be hungry again. And broke, hence the cheap sand wiches for lunch. Trust me, the life of a student-journalist has its perks — sleeping on the Emerald couch anytime we want and having access to cable on the newsroom TV is pretty sweet — but putting up with the unpleasant aro ma of your colleague’s money-saving eating habits ain’t one of them. Commentary Jack Clifford There are other drawbacks, of course. Un less you enjoy receiving early morning phone calls from bill collectors because the monthly pay here at the Emerald registers about 2.0 on the Richter scale of income. Who knows, maybe you’d enjoy leaving school with less than a sterling GPA because covering yet another student protest — was it animal rights or human rights this time? — took precedent over that Info Hell project. So, beyond all of this self-pity, what does it mean to be a student-journalist? It means we wake up with a sense of purpose. We walk to class with our radar set on “feature story,” wondering if this person or that one would make for a good profile article. We sit and listen to our pro fessors for a minute or so, then zone out and rework in our head the lead to that day’s front page story. We also willingly put in about 40-50 hours a week — if we’re lucky and it’s not more — trying to satisfy our creativity jones. We stagger into the office by 10 a.m., stay until 7 p.m., 8 p.m., maybe mid night if some major news breaks, such as a major donor pulls $30 million from the school. But, we’re not complaining. What other job pays money to go around and ask people questions, sometimes of a fairly personal nature? Well, excluding those jobs that in volve discussing whether or not the med ication dosages are working. Don’t be fooled, however. We get in our goof-off time and one look at the Emerald newsroom around 1 p.m. any day of the week could verify this. Until the clock creeps toward 2 p.m. or so, then as the time begins to accelerate toward 3 p.m. Finally, when the 4 p.m. deadline is a mere hour r away, the newsroom takes on a certain chaotic calm, with computer stations filled and sentences getting ferociously, and sometimes incorrectly, typed. This is when the student-journalist works the hardest and, most often, taps out his or her best work. The adrenaline rush of push ing that deadline, while irking the editors in the process, is hard to resist. But the journalist isn’t always a writer. The Emerald newsroom is made up of a di verse cast of characters, which includes copy editors, photographers, graphic de signers and illustrators. Then there’s the business side of the operations: the man agers, the sales reps, the ad designers, the classified advertising personnel and even the newspaper delivery staff. Sure, maybe a photographer doesn’t know a nut graph from a bar graph, and maybe a designer isn't up to speed on issues of libel. That doesn’t matter. We’re all journalists up here on the EMU third floor, churning out a daily product with one goal in mind: To be a source of in formation for you, the student, the Universi ty staff member, the professor, the city coun cilor or the homemaker. Who knows, maybe even for the guy who walks along the streets of Eugene mumbling to himself. We can’t provide that information with out input from you, however. We don’t al ways know what’s happening on campus or outside the boundaries of the University. We depend, for the most part, on readers and the public to help us generate stories. If you think something fishy is happen ing in the food services department, we want to hear about it. If you think some athlete is getting a heavy dose of fa voritism, call us up. If your professor makes a pass at you, or makes you think that your grade depends on some quid pro quo arrangement, come talk to us. These and others are the news stories we want to research and write about. But we also want to cover the triumphs in the community. We want to hear about the single mother of two, working two jobs, go ing to school full time and bringing home a 3.0 GPA. We want to know if your band just signed a recording contract with some hot shot label. We want to be informed if your student group raised $5,000 to help disad vantaged youth in the community. Will we write about everything that you think is important? Unfortunately, no. Our normal paper size is anywhere from 16 to 24 pages. In an environment such as the University that is burgeoning with ideas and innovations, it is difficult to squeeze in the gamut. Throw in a wacky city cul ture, where any day can bring on a news worthy event, and the space gets tighter and tighter. There will always be groups and individ uals who feel slighted or targeted by the Emerald. We can’t do much to change that, except to express that we are just carrying out this job to the best of our abilities. Just do us one favor. No matter what your opinion of the Emerald has been throughout the years—good, bad or indifferent — shelve it for now. I know for a fact because I regularly read our archives, that each and every newsroom staff, from the first Emerald issue approximately 100 years ago, has taken on this responsibility with dedication and professionalism. Pleasing all of our readers is impossible, however. So take this coming school year for what it is, a new start. We also don’t claim to be the end-all source of information on campus; pick up the Oregon Commentator, the Oregon Voice, the Student Insurgent or one of the other student-produced papers lying around. Lis ten to KWVA, the campus radio station, if that’s how you like to receive your news. Just remember, though, we’re all stu dents, trying to make sense of this, the Infor mation Age. I can’t speak for those other news sources, but if you have a problem with the Emerald, a complaint about our coverage or, hey, maybe even a compliment about something we wrote, come on up stairs and let us know. There might even be a tuna fish sandwich in it for you. We didn’t forget about everyone else What does it mean to play any significant role on this campus, perhaps as a student involved in athletics or one jazzed about acting? What does it mean to be a professor or administrator at the University? What about a member of the campus or local arts community, what does that mean? In gener al, what does it mean to be a member of the Eugene community? We certainly don’t expect you to answer those questions all by yourself, so we’re us ing this Back to the Books issue as a mini guide to dissect that very theme: What does it mean? In each of the five sections — Campus Life, Community, Pulse, Sports and this one, University — we have posed that ques tion to eight people in each category. You can read each set of blurbs and determine where you fit into the mix. Jack Clifford is the Emerald’s editor in chief. P.O. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Friday during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Dai ly Emerald Publishing Co, Inc., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, A member of the Associat ed Press, the Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memo rial Union The Emerald is private property. The un lawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by NEWSROOM — (541H46-5S11 Back to the Books staff Editor in chief: Jack Clifford University: Kristy Hessman, editor Campus Life: Kristina Johnson, editor Community: Jack Clifford, editor Pulse: Rebecca Newell, editor Sports: Jeff Smith, editor Reporters: Tonya Alanez, Peter Hockaday, Adam Jude, Robbie McCallum, Scott Pesznecker Photo: Azle Malinao-Alvarez, editor, Tom Patterson, Catharine Kendall, photographers Copy Chiefs: Molly Egan, Sara Lieberth On-line Editor: Timur Insepov Design Editor: Laura Chamberlain PRODUCTION — (541)346-4381 Michele Ross, manager. Tara Sloan, coordinator. Lau ra Paz, Ross Ward, Jillian Johnson, Kara Fa\Uri\, design ers.. ADVERTISING — (541) ^46-3712 Becky Merchant, director. Erin O’Connell advertising assistant. Doug Hentges, Trevor Kuhn, Jesse Long, Hillary Shultz, Chad Verly, Lisa Wood, advertising sales representatives. BUSINESS — (540 S46-5S12 Judy Riedl, general manager. Kathy Carbone, business supervisor. Ashley Kweder, receptionist. Qutaibah Hamadah, John Long, Sue Ryan, Meghan Seeley, dis tribution. CLASSIFIEDS — (541) S46-4S4S Trina Shanaman, manager.
