The first letter is a response to a prior article. You may find it here.
I appreciate the suggestions about our elections, and I agree with the majority of them.
My qualms deal with the nepotistic light in which UVUSA has been painted. I should like to adopt the editorial staff’s critical approach and apply it to organizations across campus, specifically UVU Review.
If UVU Review is to maintain its mission of being the voice of a large body of students, the group would do well to engender greater transparency in its advertisement of its selection process for the editor-in-chief position and other staff positions.
The Elections committee was far more transparent in their promotion of student body elections than UVU Review has been in their promotion of staff positions.
My purpose of comparison is to show that, similar to the Review and a host of other campus entities, UVUSA is not a buddy system or a “members only” club where the select few enjoy preferential treatment.
I should also like to bring up the case of myself: last year I applied for a position having no experience or involvement whatsoever with UVUSA and was selected over a few applicants who had helped UVUSA as committee members and so forth the year before.
The real issue is increasing student awareness. The editorial staff should be praised for their proactive approach in giving specific suggestions as to how student body elections can be made a process more students know about; however, as far as UVUSA’s buddy system is concerned, readers would be well advised that no such nepotism exists.
-J. Roberts, Student Senator on UVUSA for the College of Science and Health
Response from David Self Newlin, Editor-in-Chief
For the benefit of our readers and by way of clarification, I would like to lay out a bit of information about UVU Review in response to Jared Robert’s well-received letter to the editor.
To begin, the UVU Review staff is not elected by the student body, just like a local newspaper is not elected by the local residents. The positions of student body president and various vice-presidencies are, however, elected by the student body. In this way, comparison between the two organizations is misguided.
Furthermore, our role is fundamentally different from UVUSA, as we are a media organization and they are a governing body. Again, comparisons are misguided.
We do advertise for positions. In terms of advertising for Editor-in-Chief, there are currently dozens of advertisements around campus seeking applicants, as well as on the digital banners throughout the school and in this very paper, distributed in easy to find locations. In total, there will be over 3000 advertisements.
In addition, we have notified by e-mail every junior and senior Communications student in the school, as they generally have a vested interest in pursuing journalism.
This should not deter anyone from applying, however. Anyone from any major with the appropriate qualifications can apply, and I encourage them to do so. Simply pick up an application in SC 220 and return it completed by March 1 at 5:00 p.m. All requirements are listed in the application. I expect many applicants this year and I expect the competition to be robust. If it is not, I will gladly extend deadlines and seek additional qualified candidates.
The ultimate choice for Editor-in-Chief is made by the Publications Board, on which I sit as an equal member along with administrators, faculty, journalists from local papers and a student-at-large. Editorial positions are chosen by the new Editor-in-Chief in cooperation with advisers and will likely be advertised in the fashion outlined above in the coming month. This is entirely in line with the professional standards in our field.
UVU Review is open to working with anyone from any part of the student body. Applications for reporting and photography are open year round and can be picked up any time, again in SC 220. Come in and see us.
