Farewell, Spectrum
When I was hired last year as editor in chief, I realized that I had accomplished a very important goal.
I’d wanted to be editor of The Spectrum since I was a junior in high school and had learned about NDSU and the communication program.
When I came to NDSU in the fall 2004, I approached then-news editor Amy Oster about writing, and my journalism career began.
Throughout the past three years, I’ve come to realize that student journalists have the hardest jobs on campus.
They have to be informed, organized, knowledgeable and brave. They have to know how to manage their time and take criticism with a grain of salt.
I was a mere freshman when I received my first “hate mail,” as I like to call it, about something I’d written for The Spectrum.
Despite the reprimand from the reader, I defended my work because it was not factually incorrect in any way; the reader just didn’t like what I’d reported.
I didn’t know it then, but I know now how important it is to stick by what you say.
Integrity is the only thing that can’t be taken away; it can only be lost.
Last year, when Amy became editor in chief, one of the goals she’d set for the staff was to restore professionalism and credibility to the paper.
Under her guidance and tutelage, I’ve tried to maintain that credo this year by working hard to produce a newspaper with interesting stories, diverse opinions, captivating photographs and useful information.
While I’ve heard a number of complaints from a broad range of readers, I have also heard good comments about the newspaper as well.
I’ve welcomed both because it means that people are reading the paper, and that’s what we want.
One goal I had for The Spectrum was to redesign and modernize the look of the paper.
Thanks to Design Editor Stephen Baird’s hard work, the paper looks great and has been praised by a number of professionals who are avid Spectrum readers.
Another goal was to place well in contests, which we did. The Spectrum received third place at the Best of the Midwest Newspaper Convention, and the North Dakota Professional Communicators awarded many of my staff members for their hard.
My staff has been great, and I’m so happy to have had the chance to work with each of you.
I’ve learned so much from all of you, and I hope that you will be able to look back on your Spectrum experience with happiness and pride — because that’s what I will do.
This year has been a whirlwind for me, flying by with incredible speed.
It’s hard to imagine that by the time this paper appears on newsstands, I will be cleaning out my desk in what has become my home-away-from-home.
I’ve spent so much time in my Spectrum office that I joke with people that my address is 356 Memorial Union.
But I survived, as all the editors before me did and all the editors after me will.
While I am not graduating, as most editors are when they write their farewell column, I am looking forward to taking on a new challenge.
Now that I am finished, I feel like I’m joining an elite club, because it takes a special person to be a student journalist, and especially the editor in chief.
The past year is an invaluable experience that will stay with me always, and to everyone who I’ve met along the journey — thank you.