Whooping Llama

I’m beginning something here. Pretty soon, I’m going to start blogging about running a college paper (hence the name switch from “Whooping Llama”) but I figured I should get all of you up to date first. This is part one.

I’ve finished my seventh issue of the University of Charleston Eagle…and I must say it looks pretty good. I’m really not trying to blow my own horn, but we’ve been doing some good stuff this semester. We’ve turned the paper around, made it much more “newsy,” and have had pretty good success. Our issue-before-last, featuring President-elect Barack Obama(!) smack-dab in the center of the front page, went like hot-cakes. People are responding to the new format…I think they’re excited they have a real, honest-to-God campus newspaper.

Vanessa (my co-editor) and I are planning a really big story for next semester. It’s something that’s been brewing in the back of my mind since sophmore year–something I’ve always wished someone would write, and now I’m going to. You can bet it’ll be on here as soon as it rolls off the presses.

I’m having a lot of fun running this newpaper. A couple years ago, I started working on and co-anchoring the campus television show, UC on the Move (some videos from it are posted on this blog). It was a brand-new project for the university and I really enjoyed the whole TV news thing.

The videography, the editing, the script writing, the thrill of seeing your work on television…it was all really fun for a while. But UC on the Move, didn’t have a budget or much of a staff to speak of. Most of the workload was shouldered by me, my co-anchor, and our communications professor (both gone now–one works for the university, the other’s in Deleware). Our other reporters and videographers were inept at best. Some just needed more experience. Some just needed to change majors.

We were constantly banging our heads against the wall trying to get these “newbies” whipped into shape (when we only had a couple months’ experience ourselves). We fretted over upsetting the administration. We fretted over constant equipment screw-ups and delayed deadlines. Fun was soon replaced by stress, and I burned out. Big time.

I hated working on that TV show. I hated all those headaches, all those frustrations. I just froze. I stopped working, left all kinds of loose ends untied. I left an entire episode half-made. My comrades were mad at me, and I can understand why.  I dropped the ball on them, something I have never done in my entire life. If I tell you I’m going to do something, I’m probably going to do it (God willin’ and the creek don’t rise). I’m ashamed of the way I acted.

During a particularly dark period I even (seriously) considered changing my major to English and then heading off to grad school for a Master’s in education. My better senses and lack of enthusiasm for complex literary theory convinced me otherwise.

Anyway, I took a semester off from any kind of school-related activities besides writing book, movie, and music review for The Eagle. When the outgoing editor Leah Bowes needed someone to fill her shoes I eagerly raised my hand, taking my good friend Vanessa with me as copy editor. I had kinda wanted to edit the paper since I was a freshman…you could call it a dream come true, if it was one of those dreams where you fall toward the water and then jerk yourself awake within two seconds.