January 19, 2008

New online look for the Amherst Student

After several volumes with a lifeless and poorly updated website, the current leadership of the Amherst Student has unveiled a fresh new website.

While it looks like there’s still a few kinks to be worked out (like dates on the articles, instead of issue numbers), I like the new layout.

Readers of this blog know that I like to complain about the Student on a regular basis. Hopefully, this new website is an indication of a higher level of care and attention that will be given to the paper by the executive board.

In the past few years, despite good work in places, the paper has been marred by a declining amount of effort from its editors. This has manifested itself in a number of ways, ranging from the relatively benign (failing to maintain the current editions or archives of the web editions) to the more serious (demonstrably inaccurate reporting and questionable editorial decisions on important and sensitive campus matters).

While mistakes are part of the territory when students put together a newspaper—certainly I made plenty of my own when I was on the staff—the talented Amherst students that comprise the current staff of the paper should reflect on the important role that the Student plays for the College.

The paper is really the only publication that serves as the historical record of the events on campus; alumni magazine articles and campus press releases have that inevitable touch of gloss that often obscures many significant angles to a story. The independence of the Student and its weekly format allows for an objective record and provides a space, unavailable via other campus publications, for contemporaneous and detailed reporting of campus events and issues. It’s a really valuable publication when you sit down and think about it.

Although new websites are often more about gloss than substance, I welcome the Student’s new online face with hopes that even better things are on the horizon

Dave Nardolillo '98 | January 19, 2008 04:51 PM | Campus | Publications

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