Monica Ruiz
sophomore, multimedia communications
1. Describe any academic, professional, and/or extracurricular experiences that qualify you to lead the University Press.
My prior experience includes writing for Teen-Link at the Sun-Sentinel, working for the University Press currently as news editor, and contributing to the Palm Beach Post entertainment website, pbpulse.com, writing bar/club reviews, all in a course of 3 years.
I started working with Teen-Link during my senior year of high school where I was a writer for the Boynton Beach section. During my year with Teen-Link, I wrote monthly stories about students at three different high schools, Park Vista, Boynton Beach High, and Santaluces. Along with my articles, I created polls and took photographs for each story. After working with Teen-Link, I briefly worked with Sun-Sentinel’s College View program, writing a column pertaining to the challenges a new college student faces.
During my first year at FAU, I started contributing to the University Press, where I shortly moved up to a staff writer and now in my sophomore year, working as the current news editor. As the news editor, my experience includes working with writers to delegate work, creating story ideas, editing articles, and continuing my own contribution as a writer. I have written two cover stories and produced a special issue on weird classes offered at FAU. Additionally, I have written over a dozen articles, including an opinion piece on class limitations, three follow-up stories on a parking protest, and a profile on a student who created a bus shelter for Broward Transit.
To help guide writers, I have started a style sheet for writers to follow. This style sheet will assist writers in correctly attributing quotes, conducting interviews, what to look for when writing ledes and nutgraphs.
During this past summer, in addition to working as the news editor for the University Press, I contributed to the Palm Beach Post’s entertainment website, pbpulse.com writing and photographing bar/club reviews in West Palm Beach. In total I wrote three reviews, one of which was put on the homepage of the main website, palmbeachpost.com. I wrote reviews for the bar/clubs Wet Willis, Ibiza, and Legacy. Writing for pbpulse.com taught me how to give advice and insight on places to go in West Palm Beach, and how to take photographs that displayed a story to go along with my review. The skills I acquired over the summer have helped me to further develop and assist the UP writers.
Collectively my experiences qualify me to become editor-in-chief for the University Press, having learned how write articles, communicate with others, delegate work and teach others how to write by my practices. Additionally, as the news editor, my focus has been to teach the writers, have open communication and constructive feedback to help improve their writing skills and think outside of the box to make an article more appealing and interesting. These are the very skills that will allow me to lead the UP to the next level.
2. Describe a major strength and a major weakness of the University Press this semester (Fall 2009). Cite specific examples to support your claim.
During the Fall 2009 semester, I noticed the major weakness for the University Press is communication. Although the current staff does go over budgets together as a group and discusses ideas and the initial plan for the week, I feel during production time communication is limited.
Because the staff is working to get everything done before the week, not everyone gets updates on the current progress for the current issue. For example, not everyone knows whether a photo has been taken for a page, if design is completed, or if changes need to be accommodated before final proof. I think if there is one system where everyone can input story edits, copy edits, photos, and design layout so everyone can see the progress, less mistakes will occur and improve overall communication amongst the staff.
During the convention in Texas, I went to a seminar called “One Newsroom,” where it shows a product called “Woodwing.” The program allows all editors to submit work and view all the progress in one place so everyone can input ideas, fix corrections, and comment on the work. I think the UP needs to implement a system to improve workflow in order to create better communication.
The University Press needs a system to allow everyone to see the workflow in order to improve the overall content of the paper. Whether everyone is CC’ed on emails, or using a system such as “Woodswing,” everyone needs to be included in the production process. I also think writers need to see their designed pages before they are published. If the design of a finished page provided to the writer, they will be able to pin point any mistakes with captions, photos or graphs.
A major strength the paper has during the Fall 2009 semester includes diversity. This semester the content of the paper has varied, with the creation of the entertainment section. The focus is not only on news and on sports.
The entertainment section brings in a different pool of writers and creates a more diverse readership. I feel the entertainment section has a lot of potential to become successful with coverage on local and major concerts. In addition, it allows the University Press to focus coverage of FAU students and events, including music bands, theatre, art and dance.
As a whole, the paper needs to provide something for everyone; whether it is sports, opinions, news, features, or entertainment, the University Press should be a go-to source for events and news on campus.
3. Describe the most important goal you want to accomplish as editor, and detail exactly how you will do so.
My main goal as editor-in-chief would be to create additional sections for print and web. The news media is constantly changing with the expansion of the internet, accordingly the University Press needs to accommodate those changes. I would like to add a blogging section for UP Online, where writers can write about current news topics not only affecting the FAU community but also nation wide news.
Some contributors and staff writers already have their own blogging site, but adding a section for the web would allow them to contribute to the University Press in a more diverse way. The section would allow writers to expand their skill by not only writing features and new stories but by posting their own opinion in a journalistic manner.
In order to ensure the creation and production of the blogging site, I would assign a position in Opinions so writers can write a weekly blog to discuss their issues and feelings about FAU and nation-wide news. I feel the UP currently pertains to the FAU community, but as editor in chief, I would like to expand that by providing a blogging section so the UP can outsource and talk about issues outside of FAU that still affects them as students, homeowners, commuters and overall, citizens with a voice.
4. What novel methods will you employ to ensure the University Press covers every FAU campus?
In order to cover every FAU campus, I would recruit writers from each campus to contribute to the coverage of the University Press. In order to do so, I would visit a different campus at least twice a month during the semester; create advertisements to post on each campus, and network with students and professors who attend the different FAU campuses.
To obtain coverage of different campuses at FAU, I would visit a different campus at least twice a month. Alternating campus visits would allow me to network with different students and hand out flyers as well as copies of the current issue to attract new writers. I would talk to students about current events and issues pertaining to the campuses they attend in order to produce story ideas for the University Press.
I would advertise the different opportunities offered at the University Press by creating flyers to hand out and post while visiting the different campuses. The flier would give interested students information on how to contribute to the paper, as well as asking for ideas they would want to cover about their campus. The flyer would also provide contact information on who to contact for jobs they are interested in.
In order to increase different coverage on the campus, I would contact different professors in the Communications department here at FAU and make an announcement about opportunities with the University Press to recruit different contributors who attend campuses other than Boca. I would make announcements at least twice a month to different professor at the beginning/end of the class and hand the created fliers.
5. What original ideas do you have, and what specific resources will you commit, to UP Online?
To increase the production and different ideas for UP Online, I would like to create more sound slides and have reviews of local restaurants and bars/clubs in the local area where FAU students attend.
Currently we have a photo of the day on UP Online, but I would like to increase the creation of sound slide shows to at least three times a month. The slide shows would provide a creative way to enhance the website and gain additional content.
Additionally, I would like to have a section in the website where writers go out and review local places. For example, a bar review would include the writer’s opinion on the best/worst aspects of the bar, give the prices of the drink specials ranging from the most expensive to the least expensive, the atmosphere, the best/worst days to go, and then give an overall grade to their review. A restaurant review would be similar but instead rate the service and tell the most popular/least popular meal to order.
Currently UP Online features a few online exclusives, photo of the day, and news briefs for upcoming events. With the addition of sound slide shows and local review pertaining to college students, the website would provide additional resources to gain more hits to the site.
