Four days a week, the reporters, photographers, editors, designers and illustrators of The Daily Helmsman — an independent, student-run newspaper — have done something kind of brave.
Before I get into what brave thing my staff accomplished, let me explain what “an independent, student-run newspaper” means. Because I realize that the phrase often doesn’t mean a lot to most people.
It means we collect the facts and write the stories ourselves. We interview everyone on our own without the permission of our professors. And by everyone I mean — from the president of the university to the non-student who was arrested for bringing a gun on campus.
It means if you don’t like something we wrote, you can complain to our professors, the U of M administrators and to our parents, but there is nothing any of them can do to stop us. And if the crap hits the fan, we’re the ones who are responsible.
It means we are all students — duh, right? But people seem to forget that part. And we share a lot of the same qualities as the rest of the Memphis student body. We are mostly women. We are multi-ethnic. We live on, but mostly off campus and fight for good parking with everyone else. We are active in Greek life and weren’t “cool” enough to pledge. A surprising number of us are single parents. We have part-time jobs to help pay for school, and we have thousands in student debt. Our parents attended the U of M, and we are the first in our family to graduate college. We have a full class loads, and most of us are worried about at least one final exam.
It means half of us don’t get paid to work at the Helmsman, and the other half don’t get paid enough (at least not for what I’ve asked of them).
It means we are a bunch of first-timers. We don’t have the years of experience that you’ll find at The Commercial Appeal, Memphis Flyer or The Daily News. And that means we are more likely to screw up the spelling of “farewell” on our front page.
This is what “an independent, student-run newspaper” means. And that’s why my staff is so brave. They’ve balanced work, school and journalism. They’ve put their necks on the line four days a week — all for little or no pay.
A lot of people learn on the job, but few jobs require you to put your name on your work for the world to see. In an age when anonymous commenters run rampant, and our president openly attacks journalism, my staff is brave enough to collect the facts, take the photos, write the stories, take the risks and put their names in print. The 106 issues we produced this school year were not possible without the hard work and courage of my staff.
A heartfelt thanks to all who worked at the Helmsman, past and present.
My graduation ends four wonderful years at this paper, and I will miss it.
