THERE has been a lot of very complicated stuff going on at the University these past few weeks. The Opinion pages, for one, have been on fire with people sounding off about the consensus clause up for consideration in this week's election. Also, the Studente Council vice president for administration abruptly announced his resignation, and in the same breath said he was running again. And dozens of candidates are running for so many positions, the paper was teetering on the edge of alphabet soup. UJC. EVP. VPO. VPA. CIO.
Overall, the paper has been doing a good job of explaining what's going on during these complicated days. I'd like to particularly praise Caroline Freeman and the editors for Thursday's story on the reasons behind the resignation of Okey Udumaga, the former VPA. Also, Wednesday's Focus section was a great guide on the candidates and the elections: well thought out, well laid out and well written.
Several stellar stories were in the paper last week. Thursday's story about Udumaga was one I know the editors and reporters worked particularly hard on from the moment they heard about the resignation, trying to pin down facts and get stories straight. There is an internal dispute over whether he resigned willingly, as he claims, or whether he was forced to step aside, as Council President Jequeatta Upton and several other sources said.
A lot of reporting went into the story, and the staff wanted to make sure they had all possible information -- financial statements, invoices, other documents -- before running the full story. They received the documents from the Student Council on Wednesday, allowing them to run the story on Thursday.
The only blemish on that story is in the fact that in the rush to get the story out and make it look good, a page designer flipped the photo the piece had of Udumaga. Page designers like to have pictures of people looking inward on the page, not off the page. In order to achieve this effect with the photo they had, they flipped it -- printed a mirror image -- which is a no-no in journalism ethics. Flipping a photo isn't the truth -- it's not reality, it's not what was happened, what was really there.
Editor-in-Chief Michael Slaven said the designers didn't have time to redesign the whole page, but wanted it to look good, which drove their decision. He said he would reinforce the rule with the staff and assured it would not happen again.
In a season like this, it's even more important for The Cavalier Daily to provide context and background in articles, if some quotes or other details have to be sacrificed in the meantime. My only qualms are with the daily stories that aren't part of larger investigations or projects. For example, in Wednesday's paper, the article "Council amends bylaws, hears proposals" reported that the Student Council decided to eliminate the VPA position for the rest of the semester, and reinstate it when the next VPA is elected.
For readers who missed the original story a week before about Udumaga's resignation, they were probably pretty surprised and confused to hear that a position was going to be eliminated because there wasn't sufficient background explanation in the article. A simple clause would have done the job. It's those little things that editors and writers are most likely to forget to include, partially because they're so immersed in every story, every day. Readers usually don't have as much time or expertise, and really do need that extra, short explanation.
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Also, kudos to the paper for their extensive coverage on the controversies surrounding the Semester at Sea, a program the University took over this semester from the University of Pittsburgh.
Whitney Gruenloh and Leah Nylen's detailed article on the ill-fated relationship between the University of Pittsburgh and the Institute for Shipboard Education was very well reported, with comments coming from all sides of the story -- including a student who had actually been on board. The article provided the most information to date on the background and history of the program.
Also, there were several stories about the faculty's concerns over the program's academic rigor -- or lack thereof.
It's the type of reporting and probing that should go along with most major stories, which I see happening more and more.
Lisa Fleisher is the Cavalier Daily ombudsman. She can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com
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