Running a college newspaper can be difficult.
We attend not only a school where technology is the focus, but we also live in a world that encourages people to pursue careers in STEM and discourages those who want to do something outside of that. Working at the student newspaper when many people at Florida Tech don’t even know we have communications majors can be frustrating. It’s disheartening being turned down again and again and again by administrators when we ask for comments for articles we’re working on.
Visiting the Newseum and attending the National College Media Convention helped remind me and my writers how important our jobs are. We don’t write for ourselves; we write to provide information for others, to share stories and to shed light on the truth.
With that being said, uncovering the truth can be difficult. Some of the topics I’ve explored since I joined The Crimson have taken a year of investigation before anyone could write a story about them. When you look into issues other than typical campus activities and sports, people become uncomfortable. If you’re lucky, administration will dance around your questions. If you’re not, they’ll turn you down for an interview or ignore your requests entirely. Getting necessary information can be nearly impossible, especially since we are at a private university and that keeps us from having access to many of our records.
As we’ve come to the middle of the school year and the end of the fall semester, we at The Crimson have realized we no longer advertise the school, we report on it. We have started to report on issues we’ve been hesitant to touch on before. The process has been grueling, but we believe sharing the truth we find as reporters is important above all else.
Olivia McKelvey has been someone I can only describe as intensely hungry for knowledge and driven to report. She has found difficult stories and pursued them to completion; no matter how much pushback she has gotten, she has always fought to get her stories written and written well. As an editor-in chief-and reporter, I was inspired by her to keep working to find the truth and not back down when people made getting information extremely difficult.
While I am excited to be graduating, I am sad my time at The Crimson was not longer. However, I believe in her capability as both a leader and as a reporter and cannot wait to see how she improves The Crimson with every issue.