BACK IN his super-earnestbleeding-heart-on-his-sleeve days, the young Bono sang, "I can't change the world, but I can change the world in you" (this being years before he actually went out and tried to change the world), and, in a way, that's what I've tried to do in my year as ombudsman. It's not been my goal to transform The Cavalier Daily, but maybe to alter a bit the way readers, writers and editors approach the paper.
I hope that I've helped readers pick up the Cav Daily with a better understanding of what goes in to assembling a daily student newspaper, what kind of unwavering dedication it necessitates from its leaders and dive-right-in attitude it requires from its staffers. The folks who walk into the basement of Newcomb Hall wanting to write or snap photos or draw or lay things out are not professionals, either before or after their tenures at the CD, but they certainly strive for excellence, and they have the real-world awards to prove it. That doesn't mean they are infallible: I've definitely been tough on them throughout the year, and there is much room for improvement. However, the staff's biggest asset, I believe, is its can-do attitude, and it is when that mindset is strongest that the CD most succeeds.
On the other hand, I've tried to remind writers and editors of external reader perspective. It's easy to forget what the outside world is like when you're holed up volunteering in a room with no windows, but it's necessary to figuratively step outside the journalist's world and view things from the variety of angles used by the faculty, administration, Engineering students, janitors, history Ph.D.s, whomever. There's a diverse bunch of readers out there, and it's the CD's job to make sure to cover it and cover it well.
So how has the Cav Daily performed this past year?
Certainly, one of the CD's strong points has been a steady increase in news you can use. A college paper can often get caught up in the minutiae of Student Council, government or administration happenings, occasionally failing to demonstrate how that news really affects readers. The CD, however, has done a good job focusing on events that students are talking about, like the serial rapist and other assaults around Grounds, fires in buildings housing students or legal recruiters and the results of the big sporting events (on the front page when merited). The paper also does a good job localizing national stories, like the recent piece on University ROTC graduates serving in Iraq. Every article should implicitly answer the why-should-readers-care question, and the CD should continue to keep that in mind.
The Sports staff has repeatedly performed well. Its writers are among the most enthusiastic about their subjects, and their work demonstrates that. Same goes for the Opinion section. Yes, there are many conservative writers who might anger liberal readers, but they do write well. Besides, the beauty of the Opinion staff is if you feel your views aren't represented, well, then try out to be a columnist.
Despite their differences in content, the Focus and Arts & Entertainment pages consistently duke out the Best Weekly Page honors in my mind. The Focus staff hones in on subjects and gives much deeper treatment than the front page can provide. The A&E staff is full of good writers, and its reviews are usually entertaining and current.
Of course, there have been pitfalls in the past year. One of my earliest columns addressed the idiotic actions of an A&E writer who stole text from other sources and employed it as her own. That there was more than one incident of plagiarism this year is extremely disheartening, but at least the staff has been educated more substantially as a result.
That problem, not widespread but nonetheless troublesome, appears to have subsided. Others, however, have not. There has been no improvement to the Web site: no redesign, no fixing of the awful search engine, no new faculty salary feature -- really, no real modernizing of the site. Cavalierdaily.com should be easier to read than a print edition of the CD, but it's not very user friendly. Even telling folks how to find this column is a bit tricky. Remedying the Web site's problems should be a top priority for the staff during the summer and next fall.
Though the CD did not do anything new with its Web site, there have been many changes to its print edition. Among these was the severing of the Health & Science page into Science (for Friday) and Health & Sexuality (for Monday, replacing the Business page). The page is much more Sex than Health, and it's often written in a juvenile and poorly researched way. Sex columns really should feature some kind of research other than seeming to rely on the writer's own experience.
The Life section should run higher-quality and fewer columns, more features on a bigger variety of groups (College undergrads aren't the only folks using these Grounds) and tweak the disposable Odds & Ends feature. It functions as little more than a home for stories that could have been developed but weren't, when it could be a cheeky gathering place for happenings around Grounds, more in the vein of the Post's Reliable Source.
Of course the staff of the CD isn't perfect, but that doesn't mean that it isn't capable of outstanding work. I hope that my columns this past year have helped the staff to be more critical of itself and to develop a keener attention to all facets of putting out a newspaper. I appreciate the CD's willingness to give an ombudsman prime space to analyze its contents and policies. It's been a pleasure. Peace out.
Emily Kane can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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