Letter: Student achievements unimportant to paper
Wednesday's snow day rendered an aerospace engineering achievement story unseen.
Ron Barrett-Gonzalez
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Dear Editor,
In this season of primaries, basketball and carjackings an unusual story surfaced: Two university students are World Champions. How would anybody know about this? Not through the UDK — it’s neither sports, deferred maintenance nor politics.
The story was “run” this past Wednesday when campus dumpsters composed the The University Daily Kansan readership (save a few bars and dorms).
Here’s a revolutionary idea: print the story when campus is actually open. According to The University Daily Kansan faculty advisor: “Out of the question!”
Would The University Daily Kansan run it again? No.
Would they run it as an ad? No.
Could it be bought and given to the Journal World to run? No.
So here it is, a pathetic 200 word “letter to the editor” by a lowly faculty member struggling to get the word out that two students beat the world through their hard work. Will it rise above the endless pages describing decaying tunnels, primaries, missed and made shot on every court from here to Timbuktu?
Nah... we all know where these things rate in the “news world.” Maybe if we called it a “sport,” paper would finally report that two students won a really really special NCAA Championship, Superbowl and World Series.
Dr. Ron Barrett-Gonzalez
Associate Professor
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
The Kansan is put together the night before it's released. There is absolutely no way that the staff could have known beforehand that campus would be closed on Wednesday, especially given the fact that KU almost never closes. Ever.
Students unable to get the paper Wednesday could have read the story in its entirety online. That's the beauty of the Internet.
On Thursday, the Kansan ran a breakbox detailing stories that were in the paper on Wednesday, letting people know what they'd missed, and directing readers to the Web site.
If the Kansan made an exception for this story, it'd have to make exceptions for others. It would be a waste of time, money and other NEWS to reprint every story that was missed Wednesday.
The story is the intellectual property of the Kansan and its writer, and they are under no obligation to A) sell the story to another publication, or B) lose ad revenue by placing the story there.
This entire letter comes off as a bitter diatribe against competing news interests, especially sports. Was the writer picked last for the kickball team in school? Brilliant these engineering students may be, but they still need a president and Congress who support NASA funding. And they still need buildings to study in that aren't falling apart. So it looks like election and deferred maintenance coverage are pertinent after all!
I also appreciate how the letter itself gives us no indication as to what accomplishment we supposedly "missed" on Wednesday. Only that we should feel that it is more important than sports.
Obviously this professor should just quit bitching. A newspaper is a BUSINESS. Don't forget that.
Share your 2¢
Requires free registration.