My UNC Journalism Experience

I have been a student in UNC's journalism program for a year and a half, and have fully enjoyed all my classes associated with the program. The only thing I have ever been disappointed in is that they cap the number of hours journalism students can take of JMC credits.

I love journalism. When I first started taking classes, I wasn't so sure if I had picked the right major, but now that I am facing the prospect of joining the "real world," I know there is not a better career suited for me. Thanks to classes like "Reporting Contemporary Issues," "News Editing and Layout," and "Advanced News and Feature Writing," I feel prepared to join the journalism community.

I took six of my journalism credits overseas in a study abroad program through The University of Southern Mississippi. I took the Introduction to British Journalism, and I feel very privilaged to have had the opportunity to have experienced this. I would highly recommend the program to anyone considering study abroad, even if not for journalism because they have amazing classes for business, art, music, physics and more.

To students just starting the major, don't get discouraged, especially in classes with Dr. Lynn Klyde-Silverstein. Her classes may be difficult, but you learn so much.

Klyde-Silverstein assigns a beat in Reporting Contemporary Issues. Every other week the class attends the Greeley City Council meetings. Our very first meeting, there was a debate about a driveway not meeting zoning regulations that lasted nearly two hours. In another meeting, Greeley residents petitioned to allow dogs in more parks. Despite the long hours of heated debate with some people repeating their arguments and never bringing new points, the meetings were actually quite interesting, and my interest in governmental bodies helped my choose my beat for Advanced News and Feature Writing.

For this beat, I covered UNC's Student Representative Council, as shown by this blog. When I first choose the beat, I figured they had a smaller population of people to represent, so they had to have shorter meetings. I was very mistaken in that. The final Student Fee Allocation Meeting lasted four and a half hours. On the other hand, last nights meeting barely lasted an hour.

Overall, I have loved my time as a JMC student here. I could not have chosen a better program to study under, and I wish I had more time left. It will be different out in the real world, but my education has prepared me for it.

Elections

UNC students might not be as bombarded by political advertisements as they would for US presidential elections, but SRC elections are in full swing.

Polls open at 7 a.m. April 15 and close 8 p.m. April 16. To vote, simply log into your URSA account in a campus computer lab.

There are 16 candidates for nine positions. Three people are running unopposed. A complete list of candidates can be found on SRC's web site.

SRC's Budget: Up for Debate

SRC discussed ways to tighten their budget in last night's meeting.

Last week, student at large Spencer Worley proposed zero funding for SRC. Although they general feeling among the council was against this, they did discuss budget cuts this week.

They looked at ways to clean up their budget and reallocate funds from the vice president's budgets and other programs funded by SRC, such as off-campus housing, and distribute it to either other student fee funded programs or other vice president's budgets such as the vice president for clubs and organizations.

Student Trustee Bob Vincent recommended taking away $400 from off-campus housing because he saw them throw away a ton of information books. Other reasons from the board included the rollover budget from years they have been over-funded.

Student at large David Wright recommended that if SRC wanted to cut costs, they should consider getting rid of paying for the SRC board member's tuition. This was actually suggested last year with warm acceptance from most; however, after looking further into the issue, paying for tuition is in the SRC constitution and the Board of Trustees constitution.

"It would almost be easier to dissolve SRC and start a new one than it would to fix all the bylaws and everything else," Administrative Assistant Matt VanDriel said.

Other suggestions included cutting back on printing to save on office supplies or cutting the graduate assistant for clubs and organizations.

The next meeting will be 5:30 p.m. April 8 in the conference room in the University Center. Students are welcome to attend.

A Day in the Student Trustee's Shoes

I wrote my day in the life piece about the SRC Student Trustee, Bob Vincent. Vincent advises the Board of Trustees as to what SRC is doing. I struggled with two things on this piece. On they day I shadowed him, we attended the Board of Trustees meeting, and I really struggled to pay attention. I overcame this by focusing on detail gathering. When did he look at his watch? How is he sitting? How involved is he in the meeting? Does he fidget? Unfortunately, this attention to detail gave me too much information, and I had to cut about 400 words from my original draft.

Having so much information made it easy to write this article, and I feel that I did well keeping details in the story that was relevant and made the story interesting. From writing and rewriting, I learned how to become impartial to my words and be willing to cut vast amounts of what I’m saying to become a clearer writer. This is something I still need to work on. From the research I did, I learned more about the position of Student Trustee and more about the demands of being a leader on SRC.