Improvement depends on feedback

Eric O´Link -- Staff Essay

I was sitting in class the other day when something came to my attention.

We were talking about media coverage and somehow -- imagine! -- University Chronicle came up.

One of my classmates brought up the Chronicle's recent coverage of SCSU's production of "The Vagina Monologues" and of the "Love Line" question-and-answer session. She was offended by some of the language used and the general subject matter.

Whenever anybody mentions the Chronicle, my ears perk up.

See, I'm constantly on the look out -- or listen-out, you might say -- for feedback about the Chronicle. I appreciated my classmate's comments about "The Vagina Monologues" because that was a new way of looking at things. Our campus is generally so liberal that I didn't realize such comments could be taken offensively. That's something to keep in mind for the future.

But that's not why I'm here. What I really wish to address is what came next: subtle murmuring from one corner of the room. Another student said, just loud enough to be heard, "Well, I wouldn't put it past the Chronicle." It sounded as though a number of other students agreed. The general sentiment was, "Stupid, crappy Chronicle. They always manage to scandalize something or screw it up."

Hmmm.

This disturbed me -- but not for the reason that you might think.

Sure, I know that there are people all over campus -- both students and professors -- who are displeased, who even hate SCSU's newspaper. There's nothing wrong with that; people can have their opinions.

Here's the problem: in most cases, I don't know why.

These people in my class probably don't despise the Chronicle because they woke up one morning and said, "From now on, we don't like the Chronicle." There must be a reason. But I don't know what it is; we, the Chronicle staff, don't know what it is.

"Okay, okay," you say. "So you already said that."

Right. So here it is: if you have beef with the Chronicle, don't just sit there and be mad; tell us about it.

I'm really quite serious.

I read something the other day, a little parable of sorts. It was about a college where all 7,000 students went to see a guest speaker. The speaker told of a court case where the jury spent a entire day deliberating over the verdict of a case, but when they came back, the jury foreperson said they weren't going to read the verdict because they didn't want to get involved.

After the presentation, two friends are talking and one says to the other, "The speaker's story reminded me of something here at school. There are 7,000 critics walking around but 99.5 percent of them are not involved with the paper, so we don't get their input." And his friend says, "I don't want to get involved."

Now, the situation here at SCSU is not quite so extreme; we do get letters to the editor. But I know there are a lot of you out there who don't like the Chronicle for a specific reason that you haven't told us about.

So, write us letters and send us e-mails. Let us know how we're doing. If you're upset, tell us why. I'll be the first to admit to you that we're human and though we strive towards a level of perfection, sometimes we fall far short.

If, and when, we do "screw it up," not only do we want to make it right, but we also want to learn from it.

And remember; we're people too. If you write us a letter and tell us that we're all dumb and should go jump off a bridge, that's only going to frustrate everyone, so please make sure that criticism is constructive.

We'll do our very best to keep improving the paper until you're satisfied.

You can send letters to the editor to [email protected], or you can e-mail feedback to each one of us staff members at our personal e-mail address. They're listed on our Internet site, which is www.universitychronicle.com.