When I came in as Editor-in-Chief, I wanted to change the little things. I advocated for uniform opinion columnist headshots, more events, more themed general body meetings (GBMs), and more collabs — things of that nature. The shining star of The Stute, the newspaper, already has a perfected process. I never wanted to touch something that worked so well, so I didn’t. I may have cleaned up some of our side processes and the way we track certain things, but never the newspaper timeline itself.
Since the last semester, The Stute has gained essential people that will carry it on as the current eboard transitions out. With the new generation of Stuters, they have ideas for modernizing our newspaper, and I will be the first to admit that it scared me. Certain things, I stuck to what I knew. I know how the newspaper runs, I know how it should look, I have rules, and I follow them as best as I can.
But when new ideas like 1-5 minute videos on the website come up, I draw a blank. I have no guidelines, no rules to follow, no process, nothing. And I have members who look to me for either the approval of their ideas or critiques, and I just don’t know. In those moments, I like to use the line, “I think it’s a great idea; let’s table it and come back to me with more information next week.” I say that, and I try to think about it for a week and hope that another response can come out of me during future meetings.
I did my research; I looked into other college newspapers, and yes, they have mini videos on their websites. They add to the article rather than shadow it, which immediately lessened some of my worries.
I saw the sample video that our Head Photographer, Brady, made. And wow. No words, no thoughts. It was beautiful, and it is exactly what The Stute needs. The Stute’s progression should not be stopped because I have a few worries and doubts that can easily be addressed.
Right after I was reelected, I made it very clear that all the changes I made last year are to stay, but this time around there will be more documentation and clear instructions for the future Stute eboard. But, I did not expect to have to create a whole new section of The Stute during my term. I will tell you right now, my only thoughts are that we need to somehow weave it into our normal production, find more crew to help Brady, purchase all of the equipment so that there can be more videos in the future, and find a way to store it in our office. It is a lot. But not impossible.
And I said my last term would be smooth sailing.
