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Samford

End of the Crimson-year party

Two classes today. Stayed late to go over some things with a small handful of students before their final. Drove off to get the sandwiches I always buy at the end of the year: Roly Poly. Got stuck in traffic and when I got back on campus the end-of-the-year party was already underway.

We had two staffs in there this year, the outgoing and part of the incoming. It was a lively, chatty, fun affair. The has-beens told the up-and-comers secrets about the job. Some of them lingered and told stories about what it meant to them, which was lovely.

I walked them all to the door, and gave each one a little letter. Each one was different, but each said how thankful I was of the effort they’ve put in, how proud I was of the work they’ve done. I hope they are proud too.

And then there were just a few of us. And I realized that, with Sydney graduating, our newsroom lost its institutional memory of Purvis, the rock:

The short version: On our way to a conference last year, Clayton, the then-sports editor, was reading interesting facts about every town in Mississippi we passed. Our favorite was Purvis, basically because of everything he read aloud from Wikipedia.

So on the way back from Purvis, and getting a bit punchy, we stopped there for this picture, Sydney, then-news editor, Zach, then-editor-in-chief and Clayton, who was the sports editor. Because we were punchy we dug up that chunk of asphalt from off the side of the road. Clayton or Sydney one named it Purvis. It now sits in a place of honor in the Crimson newsroom.

And now they’re all off into the great wide world.

A little bit later Sydney walked out of the door. She was in the hallway looking in and three members of next year’s staff were in the newsroom were looking out. There was a joke or two and a bye and then she walked down the hall, through the fire door, down the steps and she was gone.

I closed the newsroom door. Emily, the new editor-in-chief who served so ably as the news editor this year, looked at me and we both took half-a-moment to compose ourselves.

And I thought, you get into all of this — the late nights, the too-cold office, dealing with people who don’t understand what you’re trying to do, thanking people who do understand, the good leads, bad headlines, working through stories you don’t care about, wondering each week what they left uncovered — you do all of this because you figure that you have something to offer students. It is something important, you figure, just as it was important when you learned the same things when you were in their place. It is important because the work they’ll one day do with it is important and civic and useful. And so, then, you are useful and maybe formative. And that is worth every 2 a.m. that you find yourself still in a cold office, because you are there for them. Only when you watch them go do you really realize what they did for you.

All of that was in my head as I cleared my eyes and watched Emily clear her eyes and then launched into the first meeting with the new staff.

I’ve taken to looking at this newsroom as both a laboratory and, these last two years, as a spectrum. Sydney and Zach and Katie before them started something these people will continue and improve upon. I have high hopes for that because here’s another group of young people who are sitting in the newsroom at 7 p.m. on the Wednesday of the last week of class.

That’s passion.

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5
May 15

The last Tuesday of the year

We had the departmental picnic this afternoon. We hold it indoors now. Two years in a row we could have drowned students in the rain. Today was lovely and warm. The picnic is great fun. You get to see all of the seniors pick up all of these awards that go onto their resume. Top of the this, best of the that.

And there are awards for underclassmen, too. I gave out one to a freshman and he got a standing ovation. He deserved it.

I got to give out the SEJC awards the students won in February. I gave a special award to our editor, Sydney. I always give a very brief speech for that one. I’d been thinking about what to say, and I kept thinking about when she was in my class her freshman year and about the young woman she’s become during her four years with us. We always miss them after that. So I flubbed the speech because it got almost-dusty in the front of that room.

When the picnic was over and everything hauled away and put back in to some semblance of order we all returned to the routine. This was the last night of this year’s newspaper. This is the last time they’d be together like this. We’ll meet tomorrow, but it will be different. I should have been grading — because this stack of papers is finally getting manageable, I’ve been on a roll — but I just stayed in the newsroom with them for much of the night.

We’ll lose four of the editorial staff to graduation. Sydney will be editing for Starnes’ newspapers. She had an internship there and they were wise enough to be impressed by her and offered her a job at the beginning of her senior year, I think it was. And now she’s going to be an editor, working on five community papers, in her first newspaper job. Rachael, who ran features this year, will go to grad school. Halley will be a media buyer in town. Adam, who ran a solid opinion section this year, will be heading to Ireland in a few weeks on a Fulbright scholarship. One of our underclassmen is transferring. Two more will stay on, Emily as the new editor-in-chief and Samantha will return to rule her fiefdom as photo editor.

As a group they did us all proud. Good journalism, taking slings and arrows and commendations and never getting hung up on any one thing or another, always ready to turn out the next good product. They did what I asked of them, don’t repeat mistakes and get better each time out. And they did it all with cheer and fun. Though not all of them would admit it out loud, they had a great time.

I’m glad they were at the Crimson. I can’t wait to see what they all do next.

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1
May 15

Commercials and fried chicken

Grading, grading and classes. I graded at lunch today, reading over commercials that I’d had students write. Students really seem to dive into the idea of writing commercials. You see some incredible inventiveness and imagination leap off the page. As soon as they figure out how to channel that into non-fiction writing they’ll be on their way. And that’s why I like offering a commercial assignment.

I give them a 30-second spot to fill. You can have an unlimited budget to make your spot happen. The catches are that you have to advertise an existing product and the people that appear in your commercial have to be alive — no Moses or Marilyn Monroe, and they can’t work for the competition.

And in classes today we started the slog toward finals.

I saw this this afternoon.

It was pointing to a tree in the quad, upon which a great deal of random art had been displayed. I had to go to the building in the background to handle a small accounting matter. I met a lady there who summed up two of my Samford themes. Seems she’s counting the days until her second child’s graduation and wedding. She did not look like a woman old enough to be marrying off a second kid, let alone by the grandmother of three. And, yet, there she was. Being around college students keeps you young.

The other thing was the great happiness the lady possessed. I’m sure it was really about the fine weather or that her daughter will soon be married — outdoors, with kilts! — and that the bride and groom will be moving into the same neighborhood.

“I’m getting my baby back,” she said.

It probably had to do with some of those things. Or that it was almost quitting time on Friday. But here was an account who sits in a cube and crunches numbers and had a smile that would have pointed its own way to that tree in the quad.

Samford is pretty special that way. In all of my years here I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t pleased about the opportunity to be a part of it. How many of the jobs you’ve had in your career can offer you that as a perk?

And, now, meatballs and the rest of the NFL Draft.

Have a great weekend. Just remember, the next time you see a commercial, it started because a former student was inspired somewhere along the way. And if they turn Marilyn Monroe into a hologram for the spot, don’t tell my students.

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30
Apr 15

They keep us young

They keep us young.

Last night the incoming editor-in-chief of The Samford Crimson poked her head into my office. I was just about ready to call it a night, but students will make you stick around.

Emily is this year’s news editor and she is, as they almost always are at the paper, one squared away individual. She asked me a question about this and we talked about that and then the next thing you know we’d spent an hour discussing journalism and what our newsroom can be. She left at 8 p.m.

Someone asked me a few years ago why it is I want to do this kind of work. And there’s the answer: It is important to the community, but even more so to the students I get to work with. When you have passionate college students doing work they care about, you’re surrounded by a special treat, indeed. Those people deserve as much passion as energy as you can give back. It only makes them better.

And to have the opportunity to work with enthusiastic young men and women so dedicated to learning their craft is simply invigorating.

They asked me that when I interviewed for the job here, too. I went through the importance part and the passion part and the influence my media adviser had when I was in school and then I said “Plus, maybe they’ll keep me young!”

The guy that asked me that just retired last year. He’d watched his second grandchild go through college. Now he goes out and runs four or five miles every day. He agreed with my answer during the interview, I remember it clearly. He knew about students keeping the rest of us young.

The shortest answer, as this year winds down, is that it is a treat, and worth it, and hardly seems like working. And weaved among all of that is a great value.

There’s only one more week with this year’s talented crew. Four of the nucleus I work with are graduating. I’ll break them all down next week after our last, and surely poignant meetings. But first there’s another paper to get through and the departmental picnic and then lost last gatherings.

They keep us young.

I have a small and growing mound of papers to grade. We can blame the silver hair on that.

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29
Apr 15

Just another day of skill building

Today’s front page also celebrates the two conference winners:

In the fall we also saw the women’s volleyball team win a conference championship. There are rings all over the place.

Two classes today. In one we discussed television broadcast scripts. In another we discussed commercials. I have students writing a commercial of their own creation. Any existing product, any living people, any music they wanted, any theme or catchphrases they wanted.

So today I heard a bit about the commercials. And they sound really good. You’d want to watch two or three of them attentively, and how often do you say that about commercials?

We had the penultimate critique meeting tonight. Next week the students will produce their last Crimson of the year. I think after that we’ll just have a big party. Or at least some finger foods and bad jokes.

Then, next week, there’s the big picnic, the last paper and the beginning of the year’s goodbyes.

A handful of people will be leaving as seniors, people I’ve known since they were freshmen.

You have fun watching them grow. You enjoy watching them go. You wish it wasn’t so long between sending them off and hearing about their successes.

We do like hearing those success stories.

[Insert half an hour of looking through people’s LinkedIn profiles … ]

I’m going to have to write about some people’s success stories soon.