The Norwich Guidon

[Admin]

As an administrator of this site, I will try to refrain from becoming too involved in the discussions here, but as a former Managing Editor, have a soft spot for The Norwich Guidon.

The Norwich Guidon is now online, and the paper version is being printed in regular color for the first time this year!

Visit: www.norwich.edu/guidon for the latest issue, and to view archived issues dating back to the 1999-2000 school year.

This board is a great place for all current and former Norwich Guidon staff members to discuss Norwich University's only student-run newspaper.

[Admin]

To anyone who is unaware, The Norwich Guidon is being produced for the first time this year in color! The web layout has also changed.

For more information, contact the Executive Editor, Prof. Ken Bush, at [e-mail]

Or visit: www.norwich.edu/guidon

The first two issues of the year have already been posted.

[NUwLax21]

I like the layout of the Guidon a lot better than the old. It looks a lot more professional. Also, I was wondering why they put the Guidon in people's mailbox's? I hate the fact that ignorant and lazy people throw them all over the floor in the mill. It looks so trashy. Couldn't they just put piles of them in mill so that only the people who want, like myself, them would take them?

[Admin]

Welcome NUwLax21!

While I'm no longer a spokesperson for The Norwich Guidon, I can respond to a few things....

1) I hate that people throw them on the floor. I never enjoyed watching 15-30 hours of my work per week wasted on the floor. It does look trashy, and I wish people would at LEAST put them in a trash bin. One would think that at a military college people would act with more courtesy than that. --I've seen both cadets and civilian students do it, though...so we can't even blame it on one lifestyle over the other.

2) I would argue to continue placing them in the mailboxes because even fewer people would read it than already do. It is important to the paper that it gets in front of as many people as it can. The mailboxes are one of the best ways to do this. Sure, people have their reasons for throwing it on the mailroom floor, justified or not, but the students who spend time working to produce it and the department budget that pays for it are things that should not be wasted.

The quality of the paper fluctuates from year-to-year, and many people place unrealistic expectations upon The Guidon. It is a student newspaper--not a professional one, and it is used as a learning laboratory for the Communications students taking journalism and who are interested in print media experience. There will be errors. There will be stories people don't like or agree with. There will be editorials and letters to the editor that frustrate people...but that's what a newspaper is supposed to do. It seems silly to me that people used to refuse to read The Guidon because they disagreed with it, rather than writing a letter to the editor in protest.

The Guidon serves a very important purpose at Norwich.... It gives voice to a student perspective, and is archived by the library as the "paper of record" for Norwich University. Norwich Historians read The Guidon when they do research. It is the only part of Norwich that records a student perspective in our history books. If for that reason and no other, it is important for students to take a vested interest in what is printed.

Reader response is important for The Guidon, and ultimately important for Norwich history. --Reader response gives the editor feedback and often changes coverage and often provides valuable questioning of editorial decisions, shaping how the student newspaper reports news. However, you can't have reader feedback without readers. Hence, the mailroom.

If I had one wish during my time there and for The Guidon after my departure, I would wish that the student body became more invested in what was written in THEIR newspaper by writing letters to the editor, contacting reporters and staff editors to discuss content, and by reading it.

I feel like I'm "preaching to the choir" on this one, but maybe that will help clear a few things up. I'm glad to hear that someone reads it!

-AT

[private2004]

I also read the paper (and I know that alot of my rookbuddies do too) its good most of the time, it just seems like most of the time that the president reads over it before it goes to press and gets rid of stuff he does not like

[Admin]

Hi Private2004,

I can say with absolute certainty that President Schneider does NOT look over The Guidon before publication.

I can see why you might think that sometimes, though. Often, the decisions made by the staff really seem to promote good administrative news, and often feature more of the administrative perspectives on the issues than that of the students. However, in my experience, this is often because students do not want to go on the record to state their opinions. The paper can't give the student perspective unless the students are willing to give it themselves.

Don't confuse the "President's Corner" column with the fact that he makes editorial decisions. He does not. During my term as Managing Editor, I frequently had disagreements with his Public Relations department....

Dr. Schneider has protected, with a written policy statement, The Norwich Guidon's right to the security of their anonymous sources, the independence of editorial decision making, and clemency from the "toleration" of the Honor Code for the purpose of investigative journalism. This is UNPRECEDENTED support from Norwich University, and since Norwich University does fund the publication of The Norwich Guidon, this protection can be rescinded at any point in time.

If you ask me (and you didn't, so I appreciate your patience) that's pretty impressive support from the President of a military college. He has upheld that support whenever it was challenged during my time there, and when I went to him with questionable tactics used to undermine that security, he has supported The Norwich Guidon.

I think that if you look back through the archives of The Guidon's reports, you'll find lots of stuff from my senior year (2002) and since that Dr. Schneider might not have liked.

The staff of The Guidon is always willing to take feedback.... You can reach them either at [e-mail]; or at [e-mail].

-Amanda

[private2004]

Thanks for the answer!

When you were the manging editor how were things different then they are now?

Also I think the Guidon should lay off the social intrests pices, because they are not really not the intresting I would rather learn more about what is going on in jackman or some history that no one really knows about anymore (for an example the Ski Hill part in the paper was very well done and enjoyable to read)

I agree with you that the president is very nice when it comes to the paper..but norwich is becoming less and less or a military college everyday. The president thinks more like a CEO of a bussiness then he does a general.