Alumni
On the Right Track
These days the staff is particularly proud of last year’s investigative piece about the Kappa Sigma fraternity, which had violated some College rules and was eventually removed from campus. Pittinos wrote a cover story last fall about a 17-year-old girl suing the College for failing to help investigate an alleged sexual assault. The story came from anonymous call, which Pittinos verified. “It was a really difficult situation,” he says. “I certainly wanted to get the news out there. At the same time, it’s a huge case and in the future it might hurt the college I graduated from. But the journalist easily won out” and it wound up on the front page.
President Schutt says he respects the right of a newspaper to cover news that may not portray the administration favorably. “If the Stentor prints a story or column that I feel is way off base, which happens rarely, then I write a letter to the editor to say so,” he says. “Increasingly, students and faculty are also writing into the Stentor to express a range of views on topics of the day, which I think is great.”
A recent story about a student who was in Paris having coffee at a café when he overheard someone fall into the river and rescued them was the kind of story that never would have ran in the past, Chapman says. “The reason we were able to get that piece was that the Stentor has presence now and people think to call and let others know what’s happening. Before, it was often ignored.”
She continues, “We’re trying to speak specifically to issues on the campus,” particularly in the Opinions section, which has recently included pieces about a dearth of night classes and racism in the cafeteria. The strategy is paying off. The Stentor recently received seven awards from the Illinois Collegiate Press Association.
In March, the staff launched a Web site (www.thestentor.com) through a company that will share ad revenue with the paper. Pittinos hopes it will result in better pay for the editors. “It’s pretty much a full-time job,” he says. “They need to be making more than $80 a semester.”
Chapman is most interested in continuity. “Our goal this year is to bring in freshman and sophomore students to keep the paper strong,” she says. But she and Tyler would also like to see students get some credit for their participation, similar to chorus students who receive a half-credit each semester. Tyler would like to see the push come from students and faculty. Chapman is also pushing for more journalism classes that focus on writing and reporting, so that editors don’t have to rewrite the copy that comes in. Tyler hopes to see a stronger link between the Communications department and the Stentor.
But things are still better than they were. “A lot of parents are buying subscriptions because they’re finding it’s a way for them to find out what students are doing on campus,” Chapman says. Sometimes they’re not that thrilled. “We’re not a mouthpiece for the College administration. We’re an independent publication and we try to practice journalistic skills—and sometimes that creates some clashes of interests.”
Kidney says that means they’re on the right track. “The most fun part of my time at the paper was jerking the chain of the administration,” he says. “That’s what a good student newspaper is supposed to do.”