Collegiate Times

Even as a freshman reporter last year, I hear endless comments in the dining halls, across the Drillfield, and in class about how the Collegiate Times receives very little student input. As a student who works for the paper, obviously this upset me a bit. I thought to myself, "Really?" Or I thought, "Well then why don't these students contribute themselves?"

So, this year, in my role as public editor, I thought it would be nice to help provide those students with the opportunity to easily give some feedback to us. The rest of the staff was on board, and we began to organize a Meet and Greet. In one fell swoop, we thought we would let everyone meet some of the CT staff and give us some feedback. Along with introducing ourselves, we formulated some core questions. In this column, I'm going to share some of those that stood out to me.

We started by asking what expectations of a college newspaper were. Answers varied from relevant news stories, to coverage of local events, and of course the all-important material that we as college students care about. Tech students look for student opinions, but also views from both side of an issue in an article that is well-researched.

I also wanted to know how often people actually read the paper. Answers varied even more. A lot of people read it weekly, while some read it daily. Most people read it about two times a week, while some read it only when they find one lying around - they don't actually take it off the rack. One of the more amusing answers was, "Only when my friends peer-pressure me into doing so."

As far as sections that are read most often, the online content was by and large more read than the print version. When people do read the print version, however, sports, and especially the football previews, ranked most popular. Next came opinions - I guess students like to see what other students think. Ironically enough, even though the CT is a "newspaper," news was second least popular followed by features. You guys should read features more - there's some interesting stuff in there.

What's the best thing about the CT, in my opinion? It's free. Like the ad says, save your quarters for the meter. A majority of our readership might agree with me. The fact that it's easily available, and the content within it is accessible was also important to readers. Others thought the Sudoku, crossword puzzles, event calendar and the fact that we are entirely student-run were the best aspects of the paper.

This year, our lovely managing editor of design Bethany Buchanan decided to take on a child; figuratively speaking, of course. She slaved over the print redesign for months, and the product hit stands the first day of classes. The following were comments from those we surveyed:

"It's nice," "inviting to the reader," "too professional and Washington Post-like," "love it, catches my eye," "didn't realize it until you brought it to my attention" and "completely neutral."

Finally, I saved the most important question until the end.

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