This week the college breaks ground on one of the biggest projects in its history.
The $53 million Downtown Campus, which will be located across the street from the Eugene Public Library, has been on a fast track since its inception last year. It’s a project that will accent the new Health and Wellness Building and longhouse on the main campus and provide downtown Eugene with a much-needed facelift.
Projects like this make our job easy, not only because of the enthusiasm its participants show, but because it’s something everyone wants to discuss. There’s no shortage of information on the Downtown Campus, from feasibility studies to budget documents and public meeting minutes.
If only every good story was this simple to report.
We run into roadblocks every week. People are busy and tough to interview in time for deadline. Sometimes we don’t have all the information we need to go to press with something.
Stories like the one we did on the college’s compliance with the Clery Act or different department budgets take a bit more time and effort than, say, covering a women’s basketball game or a Council of Clubs meeting.
The facts are evident in these stories.
Sports teams win and lose. Governing bodies discuss projects and make decisions that impact their constituents. This information is evident to whoever attends the events it’s presented in.
But some of the most interesting stories require research. In order to get the most relevant information for our readers, we’ve got to dig.
Sometimes we strike gold right away. More often than not, however, we hit rough patches that require us to circumnavigate them, dig deeper or give up and return later.
Although hitting these roadblocks is often frustrating for our reporters, I appreciate them. After all, did you know the Chinese share the same word for crisis as they do opportunity? (And, contrary to Homer Simpson’s belief, it’s not “crisotunity.” Google and Merriam-Webster say it’s not even a word.)
Investigation is the key to good journalism, and whenever our reporters have trouble digging for facts, it allows them to polish their skills. For the most part, our sources have been great.
But I won’t lie: it’s been tough to glean some hard numbers for our budget series.
Much of the difficulty here is due to the fact that the student treasurers for many of the clubs we work with have either only recently begun their duties or have trouble accessing their predecessor’s records.
I’d like to thank the students and administrators who have worked diligently with us to produce these stories. Unfortunately, there are times when we get a cold reception upon requesting budget documents.
What I’d like people to keep in mind is that organizations that receive student activity fee money have an obligation to key students in on how that money is spent. After all, wouldn’t you love to know where your money goes?
If it takes a bit of work, we completely understand. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the story we published on The Torch budget. Just let us know how we can help make the process easier and we’ll be more than happy to oblige.
The most important thing here is that students know how their $46.25 is spent every term. Help us do our part in getting the information out.
Editor Eder Campuzano can be reached at 541-463-5655 or torcheditor@lanecc.edu.
