Student editors do a lot of stupid things.
They sit in the newsroom calling sources when they should go to their offices for face-to-face interviews. They grab lunch when they should cover a breaking story. They leave new, expensive equipment sitting on the bleachers in the gym. They run banner headlines complete with misspellings on the top of Page 1. They live with (or, perhaps even worse, date) the student government president. They take crowbars and hammers to the newsroom in a moment of do-it-yourself ignorance (true story).
Yes, student editors aren’t always the smartest lot, but they are students. Perhaps they don’t know any better?
What’s your excuse?
The thing that gets my blood boiling when I attend the annual College Media Advisers national convention isn’t all of the asinine things student editors do (although I do hear a great deal of that). It is a different type of news that makes me want to give someone a good shake.
I’m sitting in or leading a session and a student timidly raises their hand. Then, in a soft voice, they ask what to do if “xyz” problem is happening in their newsroom and they are alone.
It seems I’ve heard it all. Advisers who the students have only seen once (the conference typically is after midterms). Advisers who tell the students to “figure it out” themselves. Advisers who cower when administrators give directives. Advisers who simply find something “more important” to do than help their students.
Shame on you!
I’m probably writing to the adviser pool who doesn’t warrant this message. But, just in case one of you is reading, I’m obliged to let you know that the rest of us are mad as hell that you’re making us look bad.
How can someone possibly advise student journalists and not educate them when they need it? How can you call yourself an adviser and not stand up for your students? What could possibly justify abandoning them?
I cannot think of a single thing a student could do stupid enough to warrant this type of treatment, yet some of you treat your students like stray, unwanted dogs. You’re dropping them off on the side of the road for someone else to rescue. Guess what? The joke’s on you! You’re abandoning them in a place where there are hundreds of caring, compassionate advisers just waiting to take them home and nurse them to health.
Perhaps someday you will find the solace you seek. Keep treating your student journalists like stray dogs and pretty soon they’ll find a new home without you.
If you’re a student who has an absentee adviser and you need help, find someone in your academy to assist you. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, use this blog as a forum to find one of us with the right expertise. Still another option, contact your local newspaper, yearbook representative, press association, or Society of Professional Journalists chapter. They really want to help. I promise, there are a lot of us who care.
