Well, I’m done for.

Almost.

Last week the college’s Media Commission appointed Kinzley Phillips, The Torch’s current assistant news editor, as next year’s editor in chief. After the June 2 issue of the paper — our last of this academic year — I’ll hand over my keys and leave my successor with what I consider the most important student job on this campus.

And, we couldn’t have picked a better person for it.

She might be young. Phillips has only been away from high school for one year and, at 18, she might very well be the youngest editor the paper has ever had. She skipped a grade and graduated one year earlier than the fifth-grade class she left behind.

As soon as she stepped into this newsroom, Phillips took on some of the toughest stories we had to offer. She covered a two-day long-range planning session in Building 19 as her first assignment. The story she wrote took up an entire page and required quite a bit of effort to put together.

After one term, there was a vacancy in the news department and I appointed then-senior reporter Warren Hollinshead as news editor and Phillips as his assistant. Ever since then, she’s continued to take on the tougher news assignments this campus has to offer.

She’s written about student government. She’s covered board meetings. She’s done stories about budgets, arrests and other college publications.
Then she impressed the Media Commission, which consists of Torch editors, advisers, media arts administrators and representatives from Denali and student government, with her proposals for next year.

The paper’s in good hands for the next 12 months. And, forgive me for sounding like a broken record, it’s the best gig a student could ask for.
Like any job, it’s got some ups and downs.

I can’t remember a week that’s gone by that I haven’t had to defend my staff or our coverage. Sometimes folks say our stories are slanted.

They’re not.

Or people say they disagree with the editorial page

It’s our opinion. We’d love to publish your letters.

It takes a bit to get used to the disagreement. But for every complaint or concern, there’s plenty of positive feedback. There’s no shortage of what I call drop-ins.

Folks stop by and offer story ideas. You get people who want you to check out their latest invention, guys who want you to write about the lack of men’s centers on campus and even people who’d like you to look into what kind of support a white student union would receive.

Other drop-ins just want to see what the paper’s all about. Sometimes students come in with their own pad and paper and request interviews, ask if they can watch the production process or sit in on meetings.

And we’re more than happy to host them. Once again I plead forgiveness for succumbing to Broken Record Syndrome, but we do receive $2.75 of the student activity fee every term.

The Torch is student-produced and managed. Our editors decide on what to cover, what stances to take on the editorial page and who to interview for our weekly photo poll. And the final word on everything rests with the one they call “chief.”

But the newspaper has a duty to its readers. Yes, we cover board and student government meetings. We let you know about luaus, tuition increases and what our veterans think of national military milestones

It’s also our responsibility to offer students the opportunity to gain experience in the field of journalism, whether it be reporting, photography or on the web. Because of the $1 increase in our activity fee students approved in Spring 2010, we’ve been able to expand those possibilities.

We’re able to pay our reporters, photographers and web producers. We’ve also been able to update our hardware and software to provide students with relevant technology.

And it’ll be up to Phillips to ensure these opportunities are available for anyone who’s interested. Yes, the job has its ups and downs, but you couldn’t ask for better.

One last word of advice, future editors: Remember the pizza. It gets results.

Editor Eder Campuzano can be reached at 541-463-5655 or torcheditor@lanecc.edu.