Alyssa GregoryMostly, it was the buzz.
I liked to write. I liked asking people pesky questions. I liked reading my story in the newspaper a day after writing it.
But it was the buzz that hooked me.
I felt it first at Student Life, and I feel it in my newsroom today. It’s the adrenaline of looming deadlines, of never really knowing whether you’re going to finish on time, and then always, somehow, finishing on time. It’s the energy that pulses through a newsroom-any newsroom. It’s the biting sarcasm that reporters everywhere love to toss around, and the sense that you’re on the inside. It’s midnight pizza and Chinese food delivered. (Once, unable to find a single utensil to eat our chicken fried rice, two of us fished a spoon from the trash, washed it off and chowed down. Now that’s quality college bonding.)
My first assignment for Student Life was to write about the new St. Louis Science Center. What I remember most is the large photo of a giant dinosaur that the editors put next to my story. The only problem was that the dinosaur had nothing to do with the Science Center. Oops. They had to run a correction.
Through my freshman year, I went on to write nearly every week. I cut out each story and taped it to the back of my door. When I ran out of door space, I pasted them to my bulletin board. When I ran out of bulletin board, I put them into a scrapbook. If you had told me then that some day I would casually throw away clips published in The New York Times and The Washington Post, I really don’t think I would have believed you.
Sophomore year, I became the Tuesday news editor, and when the Friday news editor quit, I took over both issues. If anyone thought it was a power grab, they didn’t care, no doubt relieved that another person was willing to spend all her free time at the paper.
We weren’t always the most exciting of sections. I remember the features editors, who proclaimed: “Features: We put the ‘life’ in Student Life!” The sports editors responded, “We put the “stud” in Student Life!” That left us at news with: “We put the ‘ent’ in Student Life!”
Luckily, some of us thrive on the ent.
For the staff, the highlight of the year came near April 1, when we put out the annual “Student Libel” edition, filled with private jokes that we found hilarious and an occasional item that regular readers might enjoy.
A few days before the issue went to press, someone in the newspaper’s business office said to me, “So, did they get you in racquetball class?” Turns out, the sports editors had sent a photographer to take pictures of me, a basic effort in mockery (and inside humor). Lucky for me, I skipped class that day. Still, I’ll never forget the story they ran: “Mad Dog Meckler Extends Incredible Winning Streak.” That was the first and last time my name appeared in the sports section of a newspaper.
A couple of days after our Student Libel issue hit the streets, events took a 180-degree turn for the sadder. Student Gregory Delos jumped off the 11th story balcony of Eliott Hall, killing himself. A Student Life photographer heard the commotion and rushed to the scene, capturing a photo of paramedics trying to revive him. The photo was tasteful and not the least bit gory. But somehow word got out that we had a photograph, and Delos’ friends launched a campaign to try and stop us from publishing it.
It was the most wrenching decision I’d ever been part of. Delos and I had mutual friends, and some of them were appealing to me on the most personal, anguished terms. I knew that from a journalistic point of view, there was no reason not to publish the photo, but I wondered if using it was worth upsetting so many already broken hearts. I’ll never forget sitting on the grass outside Graham Chapel with Jack Grone, who was editor in chief, talking it through and deciding the photo would not appear in the paper.
At the time, I thought the most important thing was whether to use the photo or not. I realized later that the simple process of making a decision was what really mattered. Like so much in journalism, I know now, there was no one right answer.
Today I serve on the board of directors of the nonprofit corporation created to publish Student Life. We try to give smart advice when asked, and we offer ideas for how to improve the paper. I think back to the wrenching decision about whether to publish that photo and know that we could have used some smart advice.
By senior year, I was editor in chief, hooked on journalism in heart and head. I prided myself on innovations, some of which are still around 13 years later. I came up with an idea for an arts and entertainment tabloid. I distinctly remember a small group of us trying to agree on a name for the new section. At a stalemate, we consulted a thesaurus, looked up “excitement” and found “cadenza” on the list. We’d never heard the word before, but we liked it.
What else do I remember? Great stories.
We wrote about the weakness of the sociology department one year, and then next semester, we broke the news that the department would be closed. We spent the next two years covering student and faculty protests.
We wrote about the misdeeds of a dean of student affairs and about a WU graduate who was kicked out of the military because he was gay.
When Thurtene refused to tell us how much money they raised at their storied carnival, we went to the beneficiaries and found out anyway. (It turns out that the carnival was raising peanuts for charity.) Another personal favorite: I wrote a column calling on Thurtene to admit women. I’m not saying my column is what prompted a pair of women to sue the university for discrimination, but I’m proud of being out front nonetheless.
I don’t get to make up stories any more, not even on April 1st. I don’t have final say over what goes into the newspaper. I can’t just create a section because it seems like a good idea. For better or worse, I left all that behind in college. But the buzz came with me, and so did the memories.
Student Life, happy anniversary. I hope your editors know how much fun they’re having.
Laura Meckler, Student Life editor in chief in 1989-90, is a reporter for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. She chairs the committee planning a Student Life reunion to celebrate the 125th anniversary, scheduled for September.