It is often difficult to admit fault, especially when you run a near-perfect newspaper such as the Vanguard. But, believe it or not, even the Vanguard sometimes makes mistakes. As the paper of record at Portland State, our goal is not only to report the news completely and accurately, but also to report all of the news. No matter how diligent our efforts, every now and then a story slips through our fingers. With each year, the Vanguard continues to grow as a newspaper, more effectively and wholly recording the trends and happenings of the PSU community. Because this is our last paper of the year, it seems fitting to reflect on the stories that we missed, as well as the issues that deserved more in-depth coverage.
Stories we missed
It is often difficult to admit fault, especially when you run a near-perfect newspaper such as the Vanguard. But, believe it or not, even the Vanguard sometimes makes mistakes. As the paper of record at Portland State, our goal is not only to report the news completely and accurately, but also to report all of the news. No matter how diligent our efforts, every now and then a story slips through our fingers.
With each year, the Vanguard continues to grow as a newspaper, more effectively and wholly recording the trends and happenings of the PSU community. Because this is our last paper of the year, it seems fitting to reflect on the stories that we missed, as well as the issues that deserved more in-depth coverage.
Budgets, budgets, budgetsIn 2007, the Oregon Legislature gave universities in this state exactly what they need: more money. Even though the legislature took some steps to resolve the Oregon University System’s greatest dilemma–under-funding��–by giving OUS an extra $100 million, every school in the system is still facing some kind of budget crunch. Even now, the legislature is considering the possibility that it might be unable to fulfill all of the monetary promises it made during the 2007 session.
We failed to portray the budgetary planning process that PSU endures every spring–when administrators decide how much money the university will have for the next fiscal year, and whether programs must be cut–an unfortunate error because the decisions made during budget season can have the largest impact on this university.
Unheralded sportsWith the excitement of Jerry Glanville and the men’s basketball team’s trip to the NCAA tournament, our sports section had an exciting story to cover almost every week.
Other aspects of athletics at PSU, such as club sports, intramurals and, especially, the wrestling team, were left untouched by the pages of the Vanguard. We know how much time and effort student athletes put into these activities and want to make sure that all aspects of athletics are represented.
Drama productions and the SFCThe Student Fee Committee is a mysterious, if not unknown, part of this university to many students. Often, many who attend PSU are outraged to hear that they pay $202 each term to fund programs such as the Vanguard, ASPSU and athletics. That is only magnified when they find out a committee of eight students decides how that money, a little more than $12 million, will be allocated.
It was a disservice to the student body that we did not more quickly report the SFC’s decision not to fund Drama Productions’ $20,000 budget request. The SFC said that the group could not be recognized as a student group because students do not oversee the budget. It is necessary for us to report extensively on the SFC, but particularly necessary when the committee makes decisions that have such a large impact on student fees.
The trials of University StudiesUniversity Studies has had a tumultuous year, with turnover in administration and faculty positions as well as incessant squabbling between mentors and administrators.
We covered these stories as frequently as we thought would be beneficial to the PSU community. In many of these stories, however, we failed to accurately portray the context and relevance to the student body, whether because of factual inaccuracies or incomplete reporting. Checking facts and writing complete, relevant stories are, and must always be, the foundation of this newspaper.
ASPSU, where’s the change?This year’s student government, with student body President Rudy Soto at the helm, came into office touting change as ASPSU’s number one goal. Soto wanted this staff to figure out how they could make the FlexPass cheaper, keep the library open 24-hours, create a textbook exchange and make ASPSU better known around campus and in the city, among other improvements.
We have dutifully covered the work Soto and his staff did toward accomplishing these goals, which he has, in part, accomplished. He extended library hours by one hour, established a little-used online textbook swap program with the PSU bookstore, brought a proposal to the SFC that would have drastically reduced the cost of the FlexPass (the committee promptly shot down the proposal) and made his name, not necessarily ASPSU’s, better recognized around PSU and the city.
Our coverage only faltered when we did not ask this critical question: Do students want, or deserve, more? We should have published more stories analyzing the turnover that plagued Soto’s executive staff, asking if the turnover was a consequence of his leadership. We avoided coverage of the Student Senate because, once again, the group proved to be ineffectual.
It seems that the proposal to alter the structure of the Oregon Student Association board of directors, which became a huge distraction during winter term, is one reason some goals were not accomplished this year. This incident–as well as the high turnover–serves as an example of what Hannah Fisher, the incoming president, must be wary of. They distracted Soto from accomplishing his goals. Any time the leader of a group is distracted, the group suffers.
By not asking these critical questions, we merely propagated the common misconception that students should not expect anything more than a few changes from student government.
