Karla Bowsher
1. Describe any academic, professional, and/or extracurricular experiences that qualify you to lead the University Press.
I could rattle off academic, professional, and extracurricular experiences that qualify me; however, my experience at the UP speaks most loudly by far to my qualifications as editor-in-chief (EIC). I’ve worked here for 15 months, 13 of which I’ve spent in management. In that time, I’ve proven myself as a leader, a manager and a journalist. For instance:
• When I arrived at the UP, adviser Michael Koretzky said, “Copyediting has been the UP’s open, oozing, pus-ridden sore that just won’t heal.” As a copy editor and then as copy desk chief, however, I embraced the challenge of improving the quality of our copyediting. I contributed significantly toward improving said quality while also building a team that went on to maintain it after I left my post as copy desk chief. A few months later, Mr. Koretzky described me as “a stickler of a copyeditor” who “runs a tight desk.” He also credited me with “specific results” that included: (1) “Devised a brand-new, functional copydesk system” and (2) “Effectively managed a copyediting team for the first time in a long time — at least two years.”
• After copy desk chief, I became managing editor and overhauled the budget (a detailed outline of the contents of each issue) like I overhauled copyediting. My predecessor had run such a flimsy budget that she almost lost her job over it. When current Editor-in-Chief Devin Desjarlais and I applied for her position one year ago, we both — independently of each other — cited the budget as the UP’s biggest weakness. My tightly run and monitored, 20-point budget changed that, however. Our adviser, the current EIC and previous EIC Michele Boyet would attest to this.
• When I ran for EIC a year ago, the selection panel’s biggest criticism of me was my lack of journalism experience. Since then, I have written steadily and learned to edit while intermittently copyediting and even contributing photography. Now, I am one of only two UP staff members who can write, edit and copyedit.
• I have edited for both print and the Web, and I am among our strongest editors. In fact, the current editor-in-chief has asked me to edit nearly every story she’s written as EIC.
• I have written for both print and the Web. I have written for the opinions, feature and news sections. I am the sole EIC applicant in at least two years to multi-source her application. My writing and reporting have ruffled the feathers of the powers that be in Student Affairs (Sept. 3) and Student Government (March 18) by simply presenting the truth to our readers. UP alumni have defended such work as “great journalism” (former EIC Rachael Joyner) and “great research, well-sourced, and written with eloquent satirical tone” (freelance journalist Lisa Lucas).
2. Describe a major strength and a major weakness of the University Press this semester (Spring 2010). Cite specific examples to support your claims.
‹ Major weakness:
Our editing and, therefore, the journalistic strength of the content we’ve put out. While we’ve compiled a few great issues we are rightfully proud of, like the Haiti special issue (Jan. 26), a greater number of stories have been rightfully torn apart by qualified, objective critics like our new student media director, Marti Harvey, and journalism professor Robert Bailyn.
For weeks at a time, we’ve consistently put out at least one story that lacked basic journalistic components like some of the Ws (i.e., who, what, where, when, why) or bore inexcusable fact errors. These instances aren’t worth numbering, but specific examples include:
• Professor Bailyn seemed as grateful for as he was disappointed by our coverage of the journalism scholarship fund to which he recently contributed generously (Feb. 11 issue). As he pointed out to our adviser, it was riddled with basic facts errors.
• I had to practically re-edit two articles in our March 25 issue, which I oversaw while some of our core staff was out of town for a conference. Both lacked central Ws, such as where a new center that was the subject of one article was located and when certain events mentioned in the other article took place. The misspelling of a central source’s last name and a fact error of basic math that any 8-year-old could have caught were also overlooked by both writer and editor.
I understand that mistakes do and will happen, especially at a learning newspaper. They are a small price to pay for the knowledge and experience our staff gains by working at the UP. It’s the markedly increased frequency with which such journalistic negligence has occurred this semester that I am citing as our major weakness this term.
‹ Major strength:
A core of hard-working journalists, both young and seasoned, who devote themselves to jobs that don’t repay them nearly enough. Though this may sound a trite response, these staff members are a big part of why I love my job and look forward to walking into the newsroom every week. Their degree of devotion and willingness to exceed expectations are also the driving forces behind the rest of our staff and our product.
More veteran staff members include Editor-in-Chief Devin Desjarlais, senior reporter Brandon Ballenger and sports editor Franco Panizo. Younger but industrious, initiative-taking staff members include copy editor Gideon Grudo, multimedia editor Elizabeth Whitton and UP TV editor Karen Herisse. Specific examples include:
• Franco stepped up to accept the position of sports editor not long after joining the UP. I remember holding his hand through the annual football special issue he was charged with shortly after becoming an editor. I had to show him the ropes of organization, budget writing and managing others. Today, however, he is my strongest budget writer, a fierce sports reporter, and a delightfully self-sufficient editor.
• Gideon is an unrelentingly ambitious workhorse who refuses to be bound by his current title of copy editor. He’s our only copy editor, besides copy desk chief Jay Goldberg, who copyedits with an editor’s eye. In addition to taming errant punctuation and following AP style, he routinely sends edited work back to editors because he picked up on something they overlooked. He started writing over the winter break, when he stepped up after hearing that none of our regular writers were available to help us get a jump start on this semester. Three months later, his clips already include two cover stories, and he is on his way to becoming one of our strongest and most dependable reporters. He even does his own photography for the stories he writes.
3. Describe the single most important goal you want to accomplish as editor, and detail exactly how you will do so.
I’m not a woman of vision. I am a woman of detail and structure who will be content to see this newspaper run even more smoothly and thereby further improve its content, just as our current editor-in-chief improved upon the order and the product of the previous EIC’s term. Besides that, all I can say is that I want the UP to be the learning newspaper it was when I arrived.
Fear-inspiring selection panelist Sonja Isger of the Palm Beach Post is liable to remind me that she couldn’t care less about process as long as the product is strong. I can only meet such a perspective halfway, however.
The goal of professional publications like the Palm Beach Post may be to put out an outstanding product. But while the UP should strive to reach the same professional goal, it is first and foremost a learning newspaper. Process therefore matters.
The goal of the UP should be to put out the strongest product possible while ensuring a learning opportunity to students up to the challenge. The latter half of that goal got lost this semester, however. As senior reporter Brandon Ballenger, our most veteran and arguably wisest staff member, recently commented, “It seems to me we’ve done a poor job of involving and keeping new people this semester.”
I confess I don’t necessarily have the solution to this problem yet — I don’t actually have all the answers, for the record — but I am willing to try, fail and try again. This goal is very important to me, because the UP is the reason I am what and where I am today.
When I introduced myself to previous Editor-in-Chief Michele Boyet in November 2008, I was a cocky Spanish major in medical scrubs who knew nothing of journalism and ostensibly offered little more than a firm grasp of grammar. But she gave me a chance anyway. Today, because of the opportunities the UP has steadily offered to me since then, I am a copy editor/reporter/editor/journalist/manager/leader who hopes to lead our newsroom. I want anyone else willing to work for it to have the same opportunities I received.
I believe the structure of our management responsibilities actually has a lot to do with why we didn’t retain nearly as many newcomers this semester as we did last semester. It’s not a structure than can be maintained without sacrificing other aspects of the paper, like its capacity to be a learning newspaper.
The following are but examples of my current thoughts on improving this structure in order to bring in and hold onto more newcomers and younger staff members than we have this semester:
• Increase the number of people involved in and responsible for the generation of story ideas. Currently, only editors are asked to contribute story ideas and write budgets for any resulting stories. Only two editors, news editor Monica Ruiz and sports editor Franco Panizo, are actually required to do so each week, however. As a result, the brunt of the responsibility for the genesis of our product falls on two sets of shoulders every week, with the vast majority falling on those of the news editor. I would even this burden out more by requiring that more editors contribute to the budget. I would also encourage more than just our core editors to get involved in brainstorming for story ideas.
• Better balance the editing workload. This would both improve our editing and allow editors more time to work with newer writers. A learning-newspaper philosophy does demand more time of editors, but they cannot provide it when overloaded.
4. What novel methods will you employ to ensure the University Press covers every FAU campus?
I’m still not omniscient, so I still can’t vouch for the novelty of my methods. I have and will continue to strengthen our relationships with contacts on other campuses, however.
‹ Up till now:
• I ensured that our year-in-review special issue (Jan. 14 issue), of which I was the special-issue co-editor with now-multimedia editor Elizabeth Whitton, covered all seven campuses. It’s the only issue in recent UP memory to accomplish such coverage.
• This semester and last I worked with our Jupiter reporter, Austin Lang, and photographer, Brenda Sandhouse. For example, our homecoming special issue (Nov. 5), of which I was the special-issue editor, included a spread about their campus’s homecoming because of collaboration I initiated and oversaw. I’ve also personally reported on the Jupiter campus (Oct. 1 and Feb. 18).
• I initiated this semester’s coverage of the Harbor Branch campus. While we had only covered it twice as of March, that’s twice more than we covered it in the fall, and both articles started as story ideas I came up with and found writers for. I edited both stories, too.
• I’ve also made new contacts on the Jupiter and Harbor Branch campuses. I’ve gotten to know and chatted about writing with a couple Jupiter students with whom I remain in contact. In January, I introduced myself to Harbor Branch’s media contact, who remains a resource for bettering our coverage of that campus.
‹ From now:
I believe our minimal coverage of other campuses boils down to simply being out of touch with what’s happening on those campuses. Most events on other campuses go uncovered because we were unaware of them.
To remedy this, I’ve already begun to reach out to the campuses we’ve most neglected in recent semesters: the three Broward campuses and the Treasure Coast campus.
I forewarn you that the following examples may or may not lead to increased coverage of such campuses in the long term, however. These examples are merely a starting point, but starting points are the only type of promise a human being can know she will keep at the time that she makes it:
• I’ve introduced myself to Sabrina Ubiñas, director of Owl Productions (an arm of the Broward Student Government equivalent to the Boca campus’s Program Board). We recently brainstormed ideas for how our organizations can work together to ensure the UP better serves our Broward readers. In fact, the UP has already begun to increase its Broward coverage as a result (April 1).
• I’ve introduced myself to Bethanie Gallagher, who runs the Treasure Coast campus’s Program Board. Their Program Board is in the middle of an internal reorganization; however, she directed me to online resources that will help the UP stay current on the programming of their campus’s Student Government. Gallagher will also keep us informed of her Program Board’s future events by e-mail.
• I’ve started a database of online resources for writers and editors looking for story ideas on other campuses. It is currently small but is designed to be expanded, and it will help us seek out ideas so that we aren’t reliant on other campuses coming to us with ideas and events.
5. What original ideas do you have, and what specific resources will you commit, to UP Online?
I can’t vouch for the originality of my ideas any more than I can for the novelty of my methods. I can’t solve all of the UP’s problems, either. And the Web has been an ongoing problem for longer than I’ve been here despite promising applications from winning candidates.
I therefore don’t have a grand, sweeping promise to overhaul the Web. I only have thoughts on possibilities for modest improvement of its current state. Our dream site would necessitate a Web team that we don’t have and won’t anytime soon receive the money for. So, all I can say for sure is that my ideas and resources for the Web begin with a Web editor.
Our site currently has two problems: a 1990s-era design and lackluster Web-exclusive content. As of the time I wrote this application, our site was in the process of being redesigned. While a new layout will give a needed facelift, it won’t improve our content and therefore won’t increase our online readership.
To improve and expand our Web content, we need an actual Web editor, not a webmaster. Right now, our position of Web editor is structured more like that of a webmaster. That is to say, our Web editor’s chief chore is uploading content created by others. It’s an underappreciated, robotic task that requires no creativity.
As editor-in-chief, I would try to help our Web editor take more ownership of our site and be more involved in the creation of its content. This could involve generating ideas for Web content, taking responsibility for the budgets of said content, and editing some of it. It would also involve delegation, as one person cannot single-handedly revitalize our site and then be expected to maintain a greater quality and quantity of content.
To expand content, I would suggest more briefs, galleries and blogs.
• Because we currently work on deadline, Web content is neglected and many opportunities for Web briefs passed over. With an editor devoted to the Web, however, such opportunities would hopefully not be lost.
• We’ve also had much fewer online photo galleries this semester. The most recent one I can recall was in February, and I was the one who came up with the idea, sought out a photographer, and edited the captions. The infrequency of galleries is not due to a weak photo staff, however. On the contrary, our photo staff is very strong and proactive right now. When it comes to the photo department, we already have the human resources for the number of galleries we used to have. Without a creative editor to keep such Web ideas in mind, however, photo pages for print have far outnumbered online galleries.
• Strengthening our blogs could begin with reviving our sports blog, for example. The content for it already exists, and our sports editor already has professional blogging experience; we’ve just not had a Web editor take the initiative of shaping that content into a blog. Sports is perhaps our strongest section online; it’s definitely the most prolific online. In fact, on numerous occasions over the last year, if it weren’t for our sports Web exclusives, our site would have gone without any new exclusive content for at least a week. Putting the great in-depth game coverage our sports staff regularly creates for the Web into a blog format would appeal to FAU sports followers and allow such coverage to be uploaded faster.
Gideon Grudo
1. Describe any academic, professional, and/or extracurricular experiences that qualify you to lead the University Press.
I am a staff copy editor for the University Press. This has been my only official position on the paper. However, I have also written for the paper and photographed for it. It should be mentioned that the only photographs I took were directly connected to my own stories. This is my concrete experience with the paper. On a more fluid note, I have taken part in many editors’ meetings, becoming familiar with the structure of budgets and being privy to the general workability of the UP.
Based on the experiences listed above, I have gained the experience necessary to dive into the pool of UP leadership. I acknowledge the foundation on which the UP’s legacy stands and I am confident to say that I can maintain it.
On a professional level, I am but a server and have never risen above that. However, I have been approached to become a manager in my current place of work (Grand Lux Café) and also in my prior place of work (Little Pappas Seafood House, Houston, TX). Since I turned all offers down in light of my commitment to school, nothing came of them.
As a server at the GLC, my official position is Designated Trainer. This means that I have fulfilled a pseudo-class on the processes involved in training new personnel. The class is generally designed to keep trainers from abusing their newly won powers on the fresh meat. The most applicable part of the position, however, is its allotting me to work as a shift leader. The leader of a shift is responsible for any calamity that might occur on the floor (the floor is the dining room, bar dining room, and patio), where GLC usually has about twenty active servers per shift. The leader also conducts a server’s ‘check-out,’ whereby the server’s respective nightly side-work is checked for completion. After fulfilling checkout duties, a leader will confirm that a server may clock out and go home.
Based on the experiences listed above, I am fully confident that I can lead the newsroom in a professional manner. The work I have done for GLC in the past two years has taught me how to deal with disgruntled employees and how to assure a smooth shift (translated as a smooth proof, for our purposes) in lieu of unexpected events.
Academically, I have nothing of merit that can be said to influence my capacity as the UP’s leader, other than the fact that the position compliments my major, but this has no relation to the position.
2. Describe a major strength and a major weakness of the University Press this semester (Spring 2010). Cite specific examples to support your claims.
This question is generally trivial. We can reword strength and weakness as good and bad, respectively. But the truth is never good or bad; it simply is. The gray reality of almost all matters in life makes it very unrealistic to name sections in it as either one. Having said that, the question must be answered.
The University Press is a social conglomerate. The players involved are, more often than not, friendly with and towards each other. This allows for a fun and easy-going environment by which the staff is able to complete great work. But sociability does not only reflect on comfort, it also applies to problem solving. A big part of leading a staff of any kind must be the capacity to solve problems. As such, being immersed in a social setting can allow for a more direct and honest outlet for problem solving. Devin Desjarlais (current EIC) can often be seen sitting down with a staffer to discuss a problem or issue. Her direct and honest approach, while arguably construed sometimes as demanding, is actually very productive. Her macro-management style allows for an independent staff that values its self-integrity and self-worth. When the staff of an organization values itself separately as key ingredients in a worthwhile recipe, the various staff is able to feel problems on an even keel. Once an organization can accomplish this sense of ‘we all own this,’ the tribulations along the way are met by a group of fighters, not just by a lone leader.
But the Spring 2010 semester was not just butter.
Referencing the opening of this answer, I am going to focus on a minute weakness that is not a general rule in the UP, though I feel it is important to mention, under the circumstances.
The UP’s prior EIC, Michele Boyet, has written several pieces for the UP during the Spring 2010 semester, including a full special issue. While she is a valued member of the team, her past experience of leadership seemed to have lingered on and created within her a sense of privilege. As an example, she once tried to explain to Devin that she should be allotted the right to write in a present tense. Devin, however, preferred the more dominant and traditional past tense style, and this was her rule. In retort to Michele’s requests and appeals, Devin attempted to use reason and pathos to achieve her goal. In the end, it worked, but potentially caused the portrayal of loose leadership. By this, I mean that her image as a leader might have deteriorated a bit in the minds of some, seeing as her rules were almost unenforceable. The leader of the UP must be the leader of the UP. He/she must lead the staff. Devin’s choice of leadership is not uncommon, but I do not sympathize with its political-correctness. While I would keep an open door policy to any staffer who wanted to discuss the structure of a rule I had set forth or to question my motives (like Devin very successfully did, leading to transparency with her staff), there is a line of preference where one must draw the line. I see a leader as one who leads, and sometimes a heavy hand must be used.
3. Describe the single most important goal you want to accomplish as editor, and detail exactly how you will do so.
The UP needs full and complete transparency with OwlTV in itself and a stronger structure for UPTV. The two entities are generally separated as of the Spring 2010 semester and this does not help the popularity of either. Each element can be used to strengthen and enforce the other.
The UP can generate viewership for OwlTV and OwlTV can generate readership for the UP. In this digital age, viewership and readership must go hand-in-hand. Since the capacity to create both on campus with direct distribution to students exists, the ability to combine the two is at our fingertips.
With both a broadcast and a print outlet for news, features, etc., FAU can gain a channel by which to inform the student populace. A well-informed populace is a more responsible populace, a truth by which funds for the process might be extracted from SG, though the cost does not seem too important.
To achieve this partnership, both media must share budgets. The Managing Editor can undertake this task by simply sharing the budget with a representative of OwlTV, treating the broadcast as simply an extension of the UP, and vice versa.
However, this is not a task that can be accomplished and realized fully within one semester, and probably not within two. The foundation for this merge can begin at the hands of an EIC and continued by following EICs as long as the idea is solid and continuous. Having said that, I want to begin this process, knowing fully well that it might not be completed within my term(s). The merge itself can act as an integral facelift to two media that are falling behind on timeliness in terms of the new millennium’s concept of open-source.
4. What novel methods will you employ to ensure the University Press covers every FAU campus?
This has been a water cooler issue since I joined the UP almost two semesters ago. Tentatively, there is a prospect that seems realistic and fruitful, though its simplicity leads me to believe it may have been tried before and failed.
The prospect involves having UP representatives on each campus. These do not have to be writers or photographers or editors (though this would be preferred). They just need to be a pair of eyes and ears, reporting daily or weekly to a selected editor of the UP. Once a story idea or lead is in the air, Boca UP reporters can find their way. It is the tickle of a story that we need to get us started, though, and this can be achieved. Of course, SG representatives on other campuses could work in this aspect, as well, but their use would be undermined by SG bias and Greek inanity.
The above-mentioned tactic would allow for almost comprehensive coverage of other campuses, but there are other ways.
Another tactic with which to propagate multi-campus coverage is by having a reporter (or group of reporters) whose beat involved participating in the Board of Directors meetings that are held monthly on the Boca campus. Since these meetings often involve discussion of other campuses (not always), this would stand as a good source of input about them. (As an aside, participation in these meetings needs to occur regardless of potential coverage of other campuses, since it assists in a more thorough coverage of the Boca campus itself.)
5. What original ideas do you have, and what specific resources will you commit, to UP Online?
Above, I mentioned the coming together of OwlTV and the UP as a cornerstone of my election. But UP Online stands to be the third and final leg in a tripod of information that can make the UP a sought after publication.
The web site is the easiest and most available outlet of the UP, since it does not necessitate campus attendance or channel reception. Therefore, it should be the most publicly self-aware facet of the UP. I will not discuss the make-up and look of the web site because it is being redone as this application is being written, under the vision set forth by Devin Desjarlais, who held an open meeting about the potential of the made over site, much to her credit.
Rather, it is the content that needs improvement. UPTV must step up its output and bring video to the front page of the site, with at least a biweekly turnover rate. Inasmuch as the newspaper’s top stories need to be featured on the site, they are still but print, and online viewers might respond better to video.
This will not raise costs too drastically, as UPTV is up and running and simply needs a quicker output. Again, transparency and budget with OwlTV and UPTV would allow for said videos to reference stories and even OwlTV broadcasts, elevating the popularity of both.
The web site should also include extreme featurettes that would, otherwise, not be deemed important enough for print. By extreme featurettes, I mean stories involving sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll. By adding a feature about losing weight on a campus diet, for example, the UP Online can achieve readability amongst non-readers, giving it a magazine-esque feel. Inasmuch as this can be said to lower the integrity of the newspaper, it will be arguably separate from it and will increase readership of the print version, which will still stick to newsworthy material.
