They were words we had used many times before.
“We’re just a student newspaper.”
This time, they were used to justify misspelling a professor’s name in three different ways throughout an article. Our editor was livid but our staff was unrepentant.
And our adviser wouldn’t accept it.
In an impassioned speech, she challenged us to accept our roles as professional journalists. Could our articles not create change? Did our words not have power? We needed to stop thinking about ourselves as reporters-in-training and realize our potential as agents for democracy in our campus community.
That incident happened more than half a decade ago and over a thousand miles from The Crow’s Nest, but it’s something I remind this staff as often as possible. It’s something last year’s Crow’s Nest editor, who was in the room with me that day, reminded her staff as often as possible.
Not that they have to be reminded.
Our employees are paid a meager stipend for their work — but they show up, every week, with fervent respect for their roles. They take as many as 17 credit hours a semester, work other jobs and internships and still manage to produce journalism once per week that can, and does, bring fundamental change to USF St. Petersburg. If those aren’t the hallmarks of a passionate professional then I don’t know what is.
Perhaps, as Daily Tar Heel editor Andy Thomason suggested about his own publication in a recent column, The Crow’s Nest is best defined as a “student-produced, community newspaper” rather than a “student newspaper” — a title that suggests amateurism.
In the past two years, this little news organization has transformed from a press agent for the university and Student Government to a resolute voice for student concerns. Our articles have challenged administrative initiatives, questioned expenditures and made more than a few people think before they acted.
Now, on Monday evenings, it’s not uncommon to overhear campus higher-ups grumbling about something we published. It’s not uncommon for newspaper stands around campus to be almost empty by the time our latest issue is delivered. It’s not uncommon to hear even non-students discussing an article at the Tavern.
This has all happened in the face of some tremendous roadblocks.
Several potentially hard-hitting stories had to be shelved last year after the university blocked our requests for information. Requests regarding non-USFSP students using student fees to travel with the campus debate team, late-night room checks in Residence Hall One and the school’s purchase of the Dali Museum were all denied due to creative interpretations of privacy laws, or were priced out of our budget — Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine laws allow agencies to charge for the personnel costs associated with gathering public records.
But the biggest hurdle is, undoubtedly, our funding structure.
The Crow’s Nest was independently founded by a group of students in the late 1960s but became a full-fledged campus organization just a few years ago. That status and association with the university comes with benefits — we have an ample office on campus that will soon have new furniture and our editors are paid, among others — but it also comes with strings. We rely on a heavy subsidy from activities and service fees that is allocated year to year by Student Government.
If an SG administration is unhappy with the coverage we provide, they can attempt to cut our budget. Judges have interpreted the First Amendment to favor newspapers when these instances go to court, which they often do, but SG has successfully slashed our budget under the guise of “helping” us become “financially independent.” In 2010-2011, for instance, The Crow’s Nest was allocated $22,855 — half of what it received the year before. Whether it was a coincidence that this came after the 2009-2010 editor published a photo of the SG president’s police mugshot is not for me to say — I wasn’t even in Florida during that time — though my gut certainly has an answer.
With all of the criticisms this paper has published 1,000 times weekly across campus under my guidance, it would be hypocritical of me to not seek out criticism for the paper, as well.
I met with SG President Mark Lombardi-Nelson last week to agree on the paper’s yearly budget for submission to the SG Senate and other approving bodies in coming weeks. I requested a few small increases, and Lombardi-Nelson added a few more. The requested amount is a 28 percent increase over our previous request, bringing it back to about the same level it was before it was slashed in 2010.
We still maintain the smallest organizational budget among recipients of activities and service fees funding.
To demonstrate the transparency, fairness and professionalism of the staff at The Crow’s Nest, and in the spirit of our bold colleagues at The Beacon of Merrimack College, I am making our requested budget, as well as the 2012-2013 budget, available online for public consumption at crowsneststpete.com/budget.
I will also meet with anyone who wants to discuss our budget, funding, journalism or any topic related to USF St. Petersburg — a great school I only wish to see improve through diligent reporting. Email me at editor[at]crowsneststpete.com or tweet at me at @ItsRen.
I look forward to speaking with you.
Ren LaForme
Editor-in-Chief
