THE WORST part about editing a newspaper is being haunted by the stories one can never tell.In a short year I've been on my fair share of wild goose chases -- hot on the trail of the great story that never quite pans out. My biggest, wildest goose chase took me through the cornfields of central Illinois in a rental car, eager to tell the soap-opera-like story of a retired professor who inspired thousands of students and educators, then vanished. I finally found the professor I wanted to interview, only to have the door shut in my face by her sister. "You probably think this will be great for your career," she said. Well...
Not everyone can be Bob Woodward -- finding that out is perhaps the most important and humbling lesson for any student journalist. Admittedly muckraking is fun, but the least important part of anyone's job at The Cavalier Daily. Given that, the truly biggest story that never gets told is of the immense amount of sweat and dedication that goes into producing a daily paper. After two years on the paper's Managing Board, it still puzzles me how, even when all the stars seem aligned against it, the newspaper never skips a beat. Without even a cent of University money, students with no financial training manage to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the printing presses rolling. When writers seem hard to come by, dozens of dedicated student editors somehow pull together 16 pages of content, and do it again and again 140 times in a row, all without looking back.
Working 60 hours a week until 2 a.m. is not everyone's idea of a good way to spend their college years. I simply feel lucky to have ended up at a place where I could actually get an education. The University's mantra has always been "student self-governance," but after covering student self-governance for two years, The Cavalier Daily is the only place I've actually seen it function. The CD has two enabling conditions working in its favor that apply to no other student group
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