Jason Parsley
1. Describe any academic, professional and/or extracurricular experiences that qualify you to lead the University Press.
I’ve worked for the UP for a year and a half, and for most of that time I’ve been in a management position. I’ve been associate editor, co-executive editor and editor in chief this past summer. In fact, this summer was more successful than last summer, and perhaps the best summer the UP has ever had. This semester I’ve served as Web editor, staff writer and handled the budget. I believe I have the management skills and vision necessary to lead the UP into the next semester.
In the last editor selection I was criticized for my writing and so over the summer I wrote three cover stories on deadline. And in order to serve the students of FAU I worked diligently for over two weeks covering SG’s elections in which time I wrote 14 Web stories.
Once the semester began and Rachael Joyner assumed the role of editor in chief I took a step back from management to focus on perhaps the most investigative piece of journalism any staffer has undertaken at the UP. Since then I have written two more cover stories and seven Web stories. The mainstream press has frequently followed my stories.
2. Describe a major strength and major weakness of the University Press this semester (Fall 2006). Cite specific examples to support your claims.
A major strength this semester has been the consistency of the paper. Unlike the previous semesters that I’ve worked at the UP, we have been able to maintain a consistent level of good quality. No issue was thrown together at the last minute, and while some have been better than others we have provided the students with a variety of news, entertainment, sports and opinions.
It’s much harder this semester to pinpoint a major weakness at the UP since this is the best the semester we’ve had since I’ve worked here. We’ve have had some communication problems and other bumps in the road, but overall we’ve been able to work through them relatively easy.
So if anything, I’d have to say that sticking to deadlines has been the only consistent problem we’ve had. The only reason it hasn’t turned into a major problem this semester is because for the most part we haven’t had to work on deadline every week. However, this problem must be looked at if we are to begin covering more news and events online. I believe the best way to correct this it is to address the problem immediately. For instance when I took over the budget this semester the staff did not adhere to the deadlines that I gave them. Rather than letting it slide every week I would immediately send out e-mails notifying them that they were late, or I would call them. Eventually they learned that when I said 10 p.m., I meant 10 p.m.
3. Describe the most important goal you want to accomplish as editor, and detail exactly how you will do so?
My most important goal as editor in chief would be to get faculty, staff and students to turn first to the UP for the news at FAU. And I believe the only way to accomplish this is by integrating the online edition of the UP into our daily routines. As a weekly paper this goal would be difficult to ever achieve, but by utilizing the Web and other Multi-Media resources I believe this is an attainable goal.
This doesn’t mean I will neglect the print edition. Our print edition will always be our first priority, but integration must be our second. Over the summer we reached 12,000 hits on our Web site in the course of about one week. Currently we only print 4,500 papers each week.
We live in a world now that revolves around the Internet. College students use the Web for just about everything, and if we are to truly serve our readers we must continue to develop the online edition of the UP.
By using the Web we’ve been able to get some stories out there faster than the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel.
4. What novel methods will you employ to ensure the University Press covers every FAU campus?
Since I’ve worked at the UP our coverage of our partner campuses has been sporadic at best. We’ve tried to recruit other campus editors but we’ve only been able to do so on the Jupiter campus. We’ve also tossed around the idea of appointing one person from the Boca staff to be in charge of covering the other campuses, but have never been able to find the extra staff to do so.
I will continue the tradition of searching for other campus editors, but that isn’t my only idea.
Since this question now calls for a “novel” idea mine is start up a citizen journalist or community journalism program where we would ask regular students to submit articles, ideas or photos for publication on our Web site. The Web editor would be responsible for editing the articles, and choosing the best of them to publish.
To get the word out I will publicize it both in our print edition and online edition of the paper, as well as posting fliers and sending out mass e-mails to promote it.
5. What original ideas do you have, and what specific resources will you commit to, UP Online.
As I have already stated in my answer to question three the online edition of the UP will be a priority, but the print edition will always come first. My long-term goal is to have new content posted everyday. I plan on integrating the Web into all of our print sections. I would also appoint a small staff whose first priority would be to the online edition. My online vision includes more services for the UP’s readership, such as providing a comprehensive events calendar for students and giving our readers more of a voice through the use community journalism.
