KUDOs - Feb. 17 issue

An interesting issue with an interesting BAP on page one and a quality story on Michael Nava make this edition of The South Texan, well, an interesting one. If that wasn't enough, the Foundation story by Jaime on pi was excellent. Quality reporting like that is hard to find, but Jaime found a way. This story is not over....we will be reporting more on this issue and Jaime should be on top of it. . . . . On pi, it was also good to see the brief on Tallant's inauguration. I still think that we missed an opportunity here by not playing this up bigger in the last two issues. Carlos and Angela also had good stories. Page 2 was solid with one of the most interesting Green Tip of the Week. Well done, Robert C. Pena. Erika's column again is interesting. She has great potential. Focus on Us, still lame. Juan Carlos Reyes' take on author Michael Nava's visit to the campus was solid and the photo very interesting. I also enjoyed Adrian Trevino's "Gonzo piece" on "Singled Out." While I don't encourage Gonzo-style journalism, we need to take advantage of opportunities to "practice it" and Adrian did a good job with this piece. Ha, he did better with the journalism work than with his chances on "Singled Out!" Juan Carlos continued his busy and well-done work with his Black History article on Dr. Angela Stallworth. The Ed-Ops Page was solid with a great editorial cartoon and a very provocative column by Nndy Oheri. The editorial on the proposed sports fee, while not solid, makes a good point. It's silly to spend money on sports with the economy in the shape it is in and also with the prospects of increasing student fees with this and other proposals for our university. Jaime's column is also well done. While the ed-ops page was a lot of fun for its column and editorial, the most fun were the two letters. Ha. Sprinklers....really." Sports had good action photos, good writing and solid stats....all essential for a good sports page. The Espanol page was well designed and well-written. Thank you Edwin. Edwin and JC each wrote four stories for this issue. Yes, indeed, a solid little issue. Pi carried it well. As for KUDOs, well I don't know. At this point I would say it goes to Edwin and J.C.

FEb. 10 Kudos

This was an excellent issue with good photography, good reporting and decent layout. Page 1 set the scene with the coverage of the nearby Kingsville fire by Greg Stelfox. Greg took excellent pictures and we were able to run three of them. The picture of the cross amidst the burned debris is excellent and the photo of the inferno that was a series of houses also shows the ferocity of the fire. I wish we had shown more of the cross and run the photo bigger, but space constraints and breaking news stories kept us from that. Speaking breaking news stories, Jaime Gonzalez's story on the TAMUK scholarships being safe for now was very well done. Jaime tracked down some sources from the TAMUK Foundation and he and J.C. Reyes talked to President Tallant about the consequences of funding these scholarships to be able to come up with a solid story. Well done Jaime. J.C., thanks for the help. Kristie Vela's " batty story" sprung up at the last minute and was covered well. J.C. also did a very good story on the name controversy. In short, a solid and crisp page 1 loaded with news and information and just the right graphics. Angela did a very good job with layout considering the amount of news we had for pi.
Page 2 was a well-designed, again. The standing features - Green Thing and Things Your Mama - are starting to look crisp and permanent. JC's review on "The Boss" was well done. The only thing wrong here was the "Focus on Us" photo. Again, we have people's behinds. Why? Perhaps it's time to abandon this feature. Good campus news on page 4-5. We need to do more of this type of reporting the every day events of our campus. Opinions was a wonderful mix of opinions and columns and, I must say, quite readable. Kristie's column is sure to draw some controversy. Wow Kristie, that took some courage. JC, sprinklers....really? Sports had one great photo by Greg Stelfox and good coverage. Jav-A-Stats help. Mark Molina and Adriana Trevino (albeit with some help from the old pros JC and Jaime) combined for a g ood story on recruits. Nice graphic, also. The features page on the "Hardy Man" as a good touch. Perhaps it was a bit much, but it was the introductory article and I think it's well done. Jav-a-Style should be a keeper, but I'm not sure if every week should be the norm. Try every other week? Katrina and Savannah did a good job with this. As for KUDOs, this week it goes to four staffers who contributed significant articles to our publication. The winners are Adrian Trevino, Mark Molina, Katrina Alejandro and Savannah Martinez. Well done and congratulations.

KUDOs Feb. 3 issue

This is an excellent issue with a good front page and an excellent spread on Super Bowl. The sports writing class from both TAMUK and the System Center San Antonio did an excellent job. There are many students to thank for this but suffice it to say that some of the work was of daily newspaper quality. Page 1 was well-designed. However, I had a problem with the "tudent Fees Increase" headline. It should have said something about the SUB design. Another weak point on page 1 was the "Celebrating Tallant" story....it should have been a bigger spread and had more play. Bob did a good job with the interactive survey. I wish it would have reproduced better on our paper. Bob, excellent work. Page 2 saw a continuation of the Green Tip. I predict this will be one of the most read features for our paper by the end of the semester. Bob and Serbrina, again, are doing an excellent job. And, speaking of excellent, Ericka Hernandez may be the new Abigail, as in Dear Abby. Well done, page 2. Page 3 is a little weak, but has a functional layout. The "gaming" column has potential....god job Adrian. Pages 4-5 (the Super Bowl spread) is excellent. Good writing, decent layout (the Boss) and good opinion columns. But, I really think the best thing about this layout is the art work by Bob....wow....this is award-winning material. Thanks again, Bob. The sports section was its excellent well-written self on pages 6.. Watch the headline...don't split up the score. The editorial page had two excellent columns - one by Jaime Gonzalez and the other by Serbrina Reyna......These style of quality columns will go a long way to help us win awards. Good job, Serbrina. Page 8 was a continuation of the Super Bowl stories. All in this section were well done. I really enjoyed Katrina's column and Carlos and Sasha's analysis was well done. And now we come to the selection of the KUDOs award. In an issue that had so much good writing, it's ironic that the person who gets the award would be an artist. Bob, because of his work on the green story and also the design for the Super Bowl graphic gets the award. Good job, as always, Bob...keep it up.

KUDOs Jan. 27 issue

Congratulations on our Jan. 27 issue. It's a strong second issue with plenty of news our students and faculty will enjoy reviewing. Our weakness? It's still photography. We just don't have the photos that jump out and grab the reader into the story. Another weakness is that we are starting to look the same, issue after issue. Some students (I sound like Fox News here) couldn't tell the difference between this issue and the previous one. While there are some good points about that - standard formula layout, for example - we need to diversify our look and try different things. There was one layout, page 4, that did stand out with a surprising graphic element to discuss the TAMUK System study on our university. The use of the clipboard, while not brilliant, is just different enough to attract attention to the page. We need more of this. I would like to suggest that our editor and managing editor review "good" or "eye-catching" layouts in daily newspapers like The Corpus Christi Caller-Times, San Antonio Express-News or go on line and checkout designer.com to get some ideas for future South Texan designs. It's okay to borrow and copy and modify the layouts to fit our needs and news. Try it, you may like it and you may come out with something that our readers will find appealing and would lead them to pick up our paper more.
Still, this issue had some good elements of design and reporting. First, our teaser is eye-catching. Second, our stories are solid. The "Tallant Reacts" story on pi is solid. It is one of the few instances that a lead news story is started with a quote and it works. Erika Hernandez then followed it up with good solid reporting and good quotes. Still, do not make it a practice to start a story with a quote, unless God himself comes down from heaven and says something like "The world will end in 40 days!", in which case it really doesn't matter any more. Ha. The story on the Cue Shack is good but, again, because we were too busy designing a feature page that wasn't ready, we didn't follow our edits and did not say when this happened. Every story must have a time element. What's good here is the "refer" at the bottom of the story. Again, on the edited page I had suggested moving the "refer" to the middle column. Let's try to have these types of design elements used consistently. Also, Edwin did a solid reporting job on the TAMU-CC Engineer story. The story came in late (Friday) and Edwin tracked down the principles of the story and had it in by our late deadline. Bien hecho, Edwin. Page 2 is coming together. We are attempting to use formula layout on this page and adjust to our news. The photo by Greg Stelfox does indeed show a "Focus on Us." It should be bigger. On "By the Day," we can fool around with the column-width when we have a strong photo such as the one Greg took for us. When we have a strong photo, USE IT BIG! On this page, we also find the "Green Tip of the Week." What a great feature and it ties in to the video on our TST Online. When we do this, we need to "tease" or "refer" people to our online site right on the story. Bob and Serbrina, good job. Our editorial page is again strong, although we had some silly typos such as "universities" instead of "university's," for example. Again, this can be caught if we meet deadline earlier and I and/or others are not busy starting a layout from scratch. Speaking of starting a layout from scratch, that is exactly what happened with Page 6. Carlos Alvarado had written a good story that had a strong time element on it and needed to be communicated to our students. It is the job of the editor and his main staff to recognize this and make suitable adjustments for coverage. I also was taken for a spin on this and suggested we put it on line and "refer" to it. On close inspection and after talking to Carlos, we found out it had a pressing time element and we decided to put it in the paper, bumping something else off that did not have as crucial a time element. This is an example of the type of decisions people in media make every day. This time, while we didn't recognize it at first, we made the right decision at the end. And, one other thing, journalism is not about doing the "easiest" thing so that everything works and we meet deadline, it's about doing the "right" thing so that our readers/viewers/listeners get the information they need to make a contribution to society. Let's keep that in mind as we progress through the semester. Thanks for the hard work. Oh, what about KUDOs? While there were many good efforts: Erika's coverage of Tallant's response, Edwin's story on TAMU-CC engineering, Carlos' report on the dorm choices for students, for example, there were three students who stood out. Those students were Jaime Gonzalez with his layout and report on the TAMU System audit of our university, Bob Pena for his "Green Tip," and Serbrina for her report on TST Online. Check it out....it works....Well, these three students are in the pot. Good luck.

KUDOS First Issue - Jan. 20

Our first issue of the semester has been published. It is disappointing that we only had four pages, but the short week, the early deadline and the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday plus getting adjusted to a new semester dictated this decision. In the short run, we had a good issue. We broke the story on the audit the Texas A&M System did on our university and secured an interview with Dr. Tallant about the consequences that audit would have on faculty, staff, students and the Kingsville community. Edwin Vasquez had an outstanding story. JC Reyes got a nice front page picture of the new renovated Rhode Hall. What is disappointing here is the layout on pi. It's much too horizontal modular and you can't tell what the main story is. It's hard. The Rhode Hall story was not strong enough. It was adequequate at best. Angela's story on the inauguration celebrations on campus was a little better. Page 2 had some new and exciting items - "It's Easy Being Green" by the gregarious and humble Bob Pena and "Things Your Mama Never Taught You" by the effervescent and knowledgable Erika Hernandez. We are looking for big things from this. Let's see what happens. Page 2 looked decent. The editorial page (page 3) was solid with columns, editorials, a good cartoon and a letter to the editor. I like the "Rate Bush" feature. It's an attempt to go interactive. Let's see how this does, as well. We need a folo on the response. The sports page was supposed to be a photo spread. It didn't work. A photo spread is supposed to have one BAP, a scene setter and then a series of smaller photographs. The copy is good and I think the photos are solidbut nothing in the spread says "Cactus Bowl." We will do better. As for KUDOs, it is difficult to choose someone in the first week. However, because of their innovated reporting and for going the extra mile, we must give it to the people who put life back into P2. KUDOs go Erika Hernandez and Bob Pena. Well done. You're in the pot for $100 to be given out at our "-30- Party." Let's make it work this time.

Same Song, Second Verse

A new semester is on the way and with it comes the excitement of produing a new set of issues for our university newspaper - The South Texan - and its online edition TST Online. I have great expectations for our young journalists as we embark in another journey of covering the issues revolving around Texas A&M Kingsville and the greater South Texas community. We have an experienced and able staff with editor Juan Carlos Reyes leading the way and hard workers like Jaime Gonzalez at managing editor, Angela Palacios as features editor, Bob Pena as graphis and online director, Edwin Vasquez as circulation manager and reporters/photographers/editors like Erika Hernandez, Kristie Vela, Serbrina Reyes, Amanda Marcum, Adrian Trevino, Kiki Ausbie and Mary Beth Cleavelin returning. Several newcomers like Greg Stelfox (photographer) and Tania Garcia (Advertising Manager and reporter) are expected to contribute. I can't wait to see how they do. Welcome, and stayed tuned for another exciting year.

KUDOS, Nov. 25 Issue

To use an athletics analogy, you don't measure a good team by how well they did in the first quarter or first part of the season. You don't take the score at halftime or at mid-season and say, "Well, that's it." You don't look at the results toward the end of the season or game and simply throw in the towel. No, you don't do that. A good team is measured by the sum of its parts, at the end of the game or the end of a season. A good team learns from its mistakes, adjusts, works together and sets its sights high. And, when the final buzzer sounds and the game is over,that's when you look at the score and measure the worth of the team. As Yogi Berra used to say (all of you know who Yogi is, right?), "It's not over til it's over!" Amen. And so, as we near the end of the first semester - literaly, the end of our first game, things seem to be coming together and our hard work is reaping benefits. The Nov. 25 issue was a good one, overall. We had a "scoop" - a story no one else had before us - and that's worth gold in journalism. We also had a good legal story on pi with the tax free book week and solid city improvement story on pi. Both these stories could have been stronger, but no one else had them and we can always do folo-ups. As for the Billy Garza story, Jaime stuck with it until he could verify it. KUDOs, literally, to him. We got this story before mainstream media got it. The Valley did have it this weekend, but we scooped them. Page 2 was a little better and Melinda Sepulveda did a good job in her first layout assignment. Good reviews and a good Chupi and, most importantly, a correct staff box. Tania's story on the art students on page 3 was very appropriate. Juan Carlos had another solid review and Savannah had a good news story on this page. Page 4, ed-ops, had two solid columns, a cute editorial and a slamming editorial and accompanying editorial cartoon on Catholics. Wow. Lightning is sure to strike us now. Our Lady of Victory, as the Notre Dame football team would say, "Pray for US!" Page 5, solid sports page except for the graphic I added in Jav a Stats. Evidently, I did not put it in the photo box in the server and it did not update. My mistake. But, we should have caught this on the PDF. Always open PDFs to make sure all the stuff is there. Back page is cute and I look wonderful, don't I? Ha! We should have gotten other people for this, but cie la vie (such is life in French, I think. Kristie, is that right, ha.) Well, a little known fact as I look at that turkey on page 6. My nickname in middle school was guajoloton (which means Big Turkey). Don't ask why. Basically, I have been the size I am today since I was 11-12. So....well, never mind. Take care y good job. As for KUDOs, it's hard to not name Jaime for the honor. Also, Kristie had two front page articles and she too is making a rebound of sorts. Well done. So, both of you - Jaime and Kristie - get KUDOs. You in the pot for the $100. Good luck. And, for the record, uno mas (one more). Let's go get it......