As the semester comes to an end, The Oswegonian is going through a staff change. This year, 12 members of staff are graduating, as well as a handful of our regular volunteer writers. As they leave, it is my job as the incoming editor-in-chief to find their replacements.
Each year is an opportunity to bring fresh faces and fresh perspectives into the newspaper. As an institution at Oswego State, dating back nearly 90 years, we know that we have an important role to fill. Representation is important. Especially in media, the representation is of our culture itself. But we have to ask ourselves if we are doing everything right when it comes to representing our communities.
The Oswego State community is a fairly diverse place, with many ethnic-, gender- and sexuality-based identities represented on campus and in our student body. We are about 75% white, while New York state, at large, is about 63% white. While African-American people are represented almost at an equal level to their statewide percentage, Asians are overrepresented, and Hispanic and Latino people are underrepresented. Admittedly, there are still steps to be made in the school’s goal toward a more evenly representative student body.
Whether you agree with the school’s goal to increase diversity in the student body, the reality is that Oswego State has become a more diverse place in recent years, and we need to accommodate that. Something that I have not seen much of as I hire members of next year’s newspaper staff is a diverse set of applicants.
Student media these days is not quite as popular as it used to be. This paper struggles to find people interested in writing for us, and when the time to hire a staff comes around, it is a struggle to find applicants for some positions. The other media organizations on campus, WTOP and WNYO, may have experienced something similar.
I went into this year’s hiring process looking for anyone I could find for the positions the newspaper had open. That was partially a mistake, because as a white man, I was looking in all the places I could think of in my own world: clubs I knew about and people I recognized. Unfortunately, the majority of people I know are white because a majority of people at this school are white. It was not a conscious decision, but it limited my search.
Fortunately, I realized my mistake, but I was a little later than I should have been in that realization. The Oswegonian has an incoming staff I am confident in, excited to work with and filled with opinions and experiences that are different and fresh. But I could have been more inclusive in my hiring search earlier on and found even more interest and a more reflective view of the Oswego community.
I caution all club presidents, media organizations, student leaders and students in general to be more aware of where you are looking for friends, colleagues, staff members or points of view. For students in general, meeting more people with different points of view is an important part of learning how to operate in the world today. This is especially true for our media organizations. Representing the Oswego State community accurately in staffing and in reporting is an important part of our role here. For students in general, meeting more people with different points of view is an important part of learning how to operate in the world today.
Photo byAlexander Gault-Plate | The Oswegonian
