The suffrage movement, the co-educational expansion of Mississippi University for Women and visits from Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan are just a few of the historical events The Spectator, the student newspaper for The W, has covered in its 120 years of existence.
Every fall when a new group of students joins The Spectator staff, faculty adviser Melissa Smith shares the legacy of the long-running publication and what it means to be student reporters on campus.
“(I say) ‘You’re a caretaker, and also you’re our eyes and ears on campus, because I can’t go out there and figure out what students are interested in,’” Smith told The Dispatch.
This year, that message held a bit more weight as the publication celebrated its 120th anniversary in November, Smith said.
The Spectator started on campus in 1905, a press release from MUW said. Since that time, the newspaper has expanded to a website and, depending on the semester, hosts a team to broadcast local news, Smith said.
Emma Caroline Brown, a senior communications major and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, said this year’s staff has planned special coverage to commemorate and recognize the publication’s anniversary through its three editions this fall and in its three editions in the spring.
“This year has had a lot of celebration around it,” Brown said. “… We’ve kind of just been building up and trying to support that and announce that to everybody.”
Starting with February’s paper, Brown said she has discussed doing a Spectator alumni spotlight series to showcase the previous student reporters and the work that they’ve done. She often thumbs through archived editions of The Spectator in search of inspiration.
“I really would like to do more stories on spotlighting alumni, (because) people have gone on to achieve, like really big things,” Brown said, noting several alumni now work in public relations and news media roles. “(I’d like to) acknowledge people who have used their time at The Spectator in a beneficial way for their career, or whatever they’re doing right now.”
‘Keeping students in the loop’
During Brown’s time on staff, she’s had firsthand experience covering similarly important events on campus, including the consideration of a name change for The W and the consideration to relocate Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science off The W’s campus.
For Brown, their coverage isn’t only about telling students news they need to know but also about giving perspective on what’s going on in Columbus.
The 12-member staff collectively puts intentionality and thought into the events that are covered to make sure they capture the most important moments in news, sports and entertainment for W students, Brown said.
“I’ve tried to do more articles focusing on local bands or local artists here, because you always hear people saying, ‘Oh, we’re a small town. We don’t have that much going on.’ But we have a lot going on,” Brown said. “… I really think keeping students in the loop of what’s going on, on campus and then in the community is super, super important.”
During 2011, when Smith became the faculty adviser for the student publication, there was a brief pause in printing the paper for about a year, leading the staff to start The Spectator’s website and host news broadcasts.
“Right now, we don’t have enough (students) who are interested in doing the broadcasts, so we’re just back to printing and online,” Smith said. “But it does go through cycles.”
About a year later, The Spectator resumed printing out of The Commercial Dispatch office, where it has always been printed from, she said. The layout of the paper, the articles and the reporting is all left to the students, Smith said.
For Noah Chism, a sports reporter, working for The Spectator has helped him to consider different perspectives and engage more critically with events he covers, ranging from a city council decision to an Owls basketball game.
“It sort of introduced me to something I didn’t really ever think about before,” Chism said. “Investigating something and writing it up and researching it and getting to produce something out of that information that you learned. And I never thought about journalism before. I never thought that might be something I want to do.”
Brown said she hopes that as future students take over the publication, they realize the importance of the work that’s been done and continue its legacy for another 120 years.
“I do think it’s important for me to be a proper representation of The Spectator at this time,” Brown said. “… I think (that) means being accurate, factual (and a) good representation of student media, but also for The W so I really do think it’s, it’s a big role of having to carry on that legacy that’s 120 years in the making. So I really think it’s important, too, for me to be able to set it up and leave it to go on for another 120 years for whoever’s coming (next).”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
