KUDOs - April 28 issue

A very solid issue and good job of chasing down the Senate vote story on the A&I name change. We also witnessed, thanks to the hard work of Adriana and JC, a story progress from a bottom of the page selection on the front page to a top of the strip page on pi. Thanks to modular layout, this was not as difficult as it has been in the past. This was also a good experience for our editors-for-a-week students. We actually were a "real" newspaper there for a while. Well done. In spite of that hard work, we still could have had a stronger story on the Senate. but it got the job done and we managed to scoop everyone else on this. The paper was being scooped up almost as soon as Edwin put it out there. Another provocative story was Kristie's second story on retention. The lead bothered many administrators and faculty members and had them emailing me about lack of vigilance on my part. Oh well....the truth hurts sometime. Kristie is doing an excellent job on this series, but we need to finish it out strong with an editorial and some solid graphics. We also did a good job on the Relay for Life story on pi and inside. On Page 2 we had a solid review...good job Claudia...and Erika's usual strong column. Page 3 had some good campus news. My only dissapointment here was the lead art and story on the Sigma Delta Pi student presentations. The editorial page had some good columns by Tania , JC and Mark and a solid editorial that should have been played next to the cartoon. A cartoon should be linked to the editorial. JC, you have to monitor this. Claudia did a good job on the photo essay. Story was "good" - not great - and photos adequate. Katrina had a solid sports feature on the the shot putter, but sports lacked substance and we had some head busts. Guys, it's too late in the year to be having head busts. Our second campus news page was a catch-all, but it had good info. Finally, good job on sports rewind. Thanks. KUDOs...well, this time it goes to the editors-for-a-week: Claudia and Mark. Congrats.

KUDOs April 21 issue

This was a solid 8-page issue with a good, crisp lead art on the front page of the new Miss TAMUK. But, hey guys, now that we have a new printer, let's make our lead art big and to the top so that it will on top of the fold. How about it? Let's try it at least once before the semester is over. Special recognition on pi goes to Edwin, who took time to do the first part of the "Wrestling With Retention" series. Edwin worked very hard to get proper quotes and to investigate story. His reporting was excellent and, with some editing, his story was solid. Thank you Edwin. One thing, the graphic was good but I can't read the letters on "Wrestling With Retention." For next week, let's make this white type with blue outline, or something like that. Okay, Angela? JC did a good job with the layout and design and the Miss TAMUK story led people into the inside of the newspaper. Good job. As for disappointments, there was one big one which I am just embarrassed by - the SGA I'ts a Tie story. It wasn't a tie and we had no numbers on votes. Why? We have to be more dogged reporters - dare I say be more like Edwin - when stories like this arise. Page 2 looks very crisp and solid and Page 3 had some good local stories from the cheerleaders by Katherine Robinette to Unity and opera. Wow. Nice mix. Photos, however, are still lacking and we misspelled "tophey." Page 4 is nice and modualr but does not have that newsy loook t o it......we can do better. Page 5 design on Miss TAMUK is nice, but could have been better. A photospread such as this has one "BAP" and a scene setter. The photos are much to the same size to make this layout sparkle. The Ed-Ops page had some good columns and a solid cartoon. "Hoggie, I am your father!" Wow!. Sprts is its usualy solid self with the exception of credit lines on sports, which were also a problem on page 8. Let's try to resolve this prior to the next issue. This issue was very good. There were some things that could have been better, but overall we should be very pleased. KUDOs this week go to Edwin. Thanks.

KUDOs April 14 issue

Wow...a good-looking print job. Finally. Gold was gold and not puke brown and blue was blue and not passion purple. What a change. And, in spite of this just being a 4-page issue, it looked good. The print job makes a big difference. And, also, the stories were newsy and decent. The "A&I Day" story was very well done and, with our usual exception of not having quality photos, carried the layout. Ericka, too, did a good job with the SGA presidential election story. We probably could have done a better job here but space limitations hurt. Katrina's Miss TAMUK story also looked good and we had sharp, clear, mugs of all of them inside. On page 2, the BSM story by Angela was excellent and probably deserved more play. Good quotes, good story. We probably need a folo on this. Page 2 is a good page except for "TAMUK Week at a Glance." We can do better with this. Not much to say about Page 3 - it's the Miss TAMUK candidates along with JC, Jaime and Edwin in photos...wow! Enough said! Sports is solid and a good page. KUDOs any one? This week we would like to feature the staffers who did stories while the main staff was gone. KUDOs go to Katrina Alejandro, Angela Palacios and Colton Williams. Thanks for your help. Because of it, we had a solid four-pager.

KUDOs April 7 issue

This 8-page issue had much potential. It had a very nice teaser, some good inside stories, and a couple of good lead items that should have attracted much student readership.

Unfortunately, the reproduction was just terrible. It was so terrible in fact that it was embarrassing. This was especially true for our layout and design on the Legacy Ball. The reproduction was horrible and left many who attend the event wondering what the hell we were doing. Well, it was not our fault. It is the printing company's fault. It's very poor reproduction. We have stayed with the current printing company as long as we could. We were not allowed by Student Development to change printers, unless there was a breach of contract. Poor quality and the inability to heed our cries for a better print job led to my decision to change - immediately. Next week we will print elsewhere and we will see where that ends up.

As for this issue, there were some good and bad things. Good things first.

Good: It was nice to see the staff scramble to come up with clear and well-written articles on the AMK and A&I vote both for the student vote and the South Texan poll. It was also nice to see the summer school schedule on the front page, but I was disappointed we didn't write it...WE WRITE ALL OUR STORIES!

The "Relay for Life" story on page 3 was excellent. The history of the university was a nice touch on page 4. Ed-Ops was super. Sports decent. The Legacy Ball feature on page 8 was a lot of hard work and we had some good photos but, because of the poor print job, we missed the mark. Katrina, good job on this assignment.

Angela's teaser was beautiful. Too bad no one could see it on the print job. Are you kidding me?

We had several good columns and editorials throuhout. Good job Erika, JC and Jaime and others who contributed.

Bad: Our photography was poor, at best, overall. The best pictures were of the Legacy Ball and sports. Other than that, a 3rd grader could have snapped the shots with a auto focus camera. We can do better. Also, the summer school schedule story which was assigned three weeks ago turned out to be staff reports. Why?

Jav-A-Style is one of the fresh new features on our paper. This Jav-A-Style was very weak. It was just a guy with t-shirts and jeans. He has no style. JC has more style. Perhaps we should feature JC or, as several of you have suggested, some professors in town. This feature must single out what is "different" about the subject we are interviewing. It can't be some one's friend or acquaintance. It must be a student with a singular dressing style.

The layout on page 3 was too horizontal modular. We can do better if we plan ahead.

KUDOS: Well, who gets KUDOs. My vote is for Staff Reports, who had three front-page stories. What do you think? Any suggestions? Of course not. Few of you will read this blog. If you do, please post a suggestion on the comments section of this blog or see me personally.

KUDOs March 31 issue

Well, we came back from Spring Break 2009 with a bang. What a wonderful edition of The South Texan Juan Carlos Reyes' and his staff produced for our March 31 issue. It was EXCELLENT! More importantly, we worked very well as a staff. In my three years at TAMUK, this is truly the first time that the staff work this well and this close, together. Congratulations J.C. We had a very good looking front page...nice graphic...nice refers to the online vote...well-written stories....what can I say? All of the pages were nice. Carlos did a wonderful job with his I love Paris story and Lorraine did a great job with the story on Angela and Tania. The Spanish page by Edwin was solid, well-written and, may I say, provocative. Erika was her usual self, Angela had an excellent story on Chavez, ed-ops page had letters to the editors and more So, who gets KUDOs? When an issue is as solid as this...it's a true team effort. All of the staffers who worked on this get KUDOs, all of them, even JC. Way to go JC...thanks

KUDOs - March 10 issue

It was nice to see the March 10 issue. It was solid. We had a solid front page and several good layouts and we had some very good stories. It was also good to go on Spring Break with a solid issue. I think we showed much class and dignity by running the SGA story at the top of pi, along with a photo of the SGA president. The fact that there seems to be a rocky relationship between SGA and The South Texan should never preclude us from covering a story properly. SGA did a good job, it was big news and it go proper play. Well done.
And, here we have another sports story on pi. Well, it was even bigger than the other story and the fact we had the word "Madness" on the front page attracted many readers who did not realize that Division II had its own version of "March Madness." Page 2 had its usual standing columns and there is not much to say, except "good job." Adrian's column on gaming was interesting. We should consider making it a regular feature. Pages 3 and 4 had some good stories, but they were not well-written. The TV2 story should have been more powerful. Both pages, however, were very "newsy" and it shows we are trying to cover the campus as well as we can.
The Ed-Ops page had a great cartoon by Robert Pena as the ol' A&I logo is scolding the new A&M logo. Ha. This is not necessarily true, but it gets the point told very well and coincides well with our editorial below. As for Nndy's column, well, I agree with it. It's daily newspaper level quality. Really! The Athletic Fees editorial also very well done and researched. Nice page. Sports has some very solid stories and excellent pictures. Again, my grip, run at least one photo BIG!
Pages 7-8 also have interesting stories.
KUDOs....that's hard this week. Everyone was working to get the stories in on time. KUDOs goes to Tania for her front page story and for working on improving our advertising.

KUDOs - March 3issue

The March 3 issue had a sports story on the front page. We usually don't do this, except for rare occasions. Is this a rare occasion? Well, we're back in the conference tournament after being absent one year....and we had a good lead photo to go with the story...and, well, it was a slow news week. Most of our news happened outside of our campus - like the death of Mary Kleberg and the action by the Kingsville City Council....so, basketball was our lead "campus" story. The only thing wrong was our headline, which was sort of grammatically incorrect. It should have said, "Basketball Team on Its Way." That being said, it was also a weak headline. We really need to work on our headlines. Oh, well. Kristie's story on the Rhode Hall bat situation was solid and cute (I don't like cute!) and added spice to the issue. The last section on pi was the teaser and therein lies a story all by itself. The teaser points to a "Gonzo-style" story on the Talent Show by Juan Carlos Reyes, our editor. Seems as if JC had a vested interest in this story because he was a participant. He lost, badly, according to the judges, but not according to JC. Now, I feel foolish 'cause I asked JC to do the "Gonzo-style" piece beforehand and felt it would be a good opportunity to continue our practice of using this type of article when the occasion called for it, and it seemed like this one did. Well, at any rate, it became another formidable confrontation between The South Texan and SGA. There is a lesson to be learned from this, and I am the one to blame for the controversy. While there is nothing wrong with Gonzo-style reporting and it is in fact an accepted standard of journalism and has been for a long time, we are not an "alternative newspaper." That being said, when our readers see this type of reporting, they misunderstand our purpose. It's not a column, it's not an editorial and it's not even an analysis. So, why the commentary and personal reporting? Well, the lesson is this: whenever we are covering an event in which we plan to do a Gonzo piece, we must also plan to have a solid news story. If you look at page 3 and read JC's piece, I think you will agree with me. The photo spread accompanying the Gonzo piece makes it look as if it's straight reporting. It's not...thus the confusion. Add to this the fact that JC blasted some of the members involved in his MySpace page, and you further complicate the situation. JC should not have done this and this is his personal mistake. That being said, witnesses at the talent show did say that JC should have placed in the top 3. He didn't, but that still doesn't excuse us not covering the event properly and with class, dignity and respect for all involved. We didn't do this and this truly saddened me and gave me some sleepless nights. Next time, however, we know better and if you are ever in a similar situation you now know what to do. I won't go into it, but SGA also had some blame here....they, too, were lacking class, dignity and respect in this instance and it continued for several days when they confronted us about the story. This, too, saddened me, but I didn't lose sleep over it since we at The South Texan now expect these attacks.
Speaking of classy, Page 2 was full of "good stuff" with Bob's and Serbrina's "Green Tip of the Week" , Katrina's and Savannah's "Jav-A-Style" and Erika's column. Very nice. I think this was our best page this issue.
On Page 3, nice photos and an interesting Gonzo piece by JC make this page very readable. Tania's Black History Month coverage also deserves mention.
The Ed-Ops page was attractive and had some very poignant issues, including a guest column by TAMUK Foundation Board Member Hector Farias. This Forum is a good example of the editors making a decision to run a "letter to the editor" which was too long. Every time we to this, however, we must understand that the other side also deserves to be heard and when the other side sends in their forum, they will be given "equal time." It's only fair. On this occasion, we had tried several time to hear the other side but the other side never responded to our comments. Wow, we had two letters-to-the-editor. This is a solid
editorial page.....nice layout, too.
Sports had some great photos. Sabrina Reyna, good job. Guys, next time we have some good photos let's run one BIG. Okay? Remember...BAPs.
This brings us to the last page.....superb job by Edwin Vasquez with the photos and story. Very well done and very strong. It's worthy of KUDOs. Edwin, congratulations.