Collegiate Times

This past Wednesday, March 4, the editorial staff and I tried a little experiment.

You may have seen us sitting at the booth in Squires coaxing you with free candy to come and fill out surveys regarding the CT's coverage this year. It was probably hard to miss us; we were there all day. I just wanted to use this week's column to say thank you to those who stopped and filled out a survey and to talk about some of the commentary we received. I wish I had enough column inches to address every suggestion individually, but I'll have to isolate a few common themes.

There were five survey options to choose from: one for each section (news, sports, opinions and features) and one survey that asked general questions about the paper. Responders were encouraged to fill out any form of their choosing and there was no limit on how many surveys you could fill out. We had 39 general responses, 16 sports responses, 15 news responses, 17 features responses and 19 opinions responses.

Each section survey asked responders to rate the section on a scale of one to five in terms of satisfaction with coverage, one being least satisfied and five being most satisfied. The opinions and news sections each averaged a 3.7, sports a 4 and features a 3.9. For the most part, people took the questions seriously. We did get some constructive comments and a few perspectives that we hadn't thought of.

I've been critical of the paper this semester for slacking in the art department. At the beginning of February, art on the pages was sparse and what was there looked rushed or was not compelling. I was critical especially as a former photo editor and photographer, because I thought the Student Publication Photography Staff was being under utilized or its work was being sacrificed because of space.

When today's surveying began, I expected a lot more people to say they were disappointed with the amount of art on the pages because a handful of people have said that verbally to me in the past few weeks. One commenter actually wrote that the CT was fine in terms of art because that's what the Silhouette and Bugle are for. In some aspects I agree with that statement but in others I have to disagree. Yes, SPPS is used to take photos for the yearbook, too, and its photographers will have images published there. However, photography is essential for a newspaper, as well. A significant number of surveys said that they picked up the paper because of the art and headlines that were on the front page. If we continue to sacrifice art, I suspect that the number of people who pick up copies with decline.

Thirty-nine people were asked which sections of the paper they read most often. The news section (front page) and sports sections tied with 14 responses each. The opinions section was cited five times and the features section (namely the he said/she said) was cited six times, often because they are "the most interesting."

I underestimated the number of responses for more global coverage I would receive. The CT is a student newspaper, and part of our mission is to teach journalism. It would be difficult for us to cover stories on a global scale simply because we do not have as much access to those resources as larger papers do. We don't have a White House correspondent as the New York Times or the Washington Post, although that is certainly something to aspire to. Maybe we can get someone from the Tech's National Capitol Region campus.

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