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Michael Dunne: I'm Michael Dunne. On some campuses, the university president may start the day happily reading the student newspaper to learn about the latest play the drama department is putting on, or a new chemistry class. But at the University of Oregon, the president may pick up a copy of the Daily Emerald and find they are in the crosshairs of a deep and thorough investigation. Such is the nature of the Emerald, which is affiliated with the U of O but fiercely independent. Today on the show, you'll meet the student editor in chief and learn how and why this news organization is a launching pad for the next generation of investigative journalists. Then in the second part of the show, our reporter gets us up to speed on yet another local institution facing budget cuts and staffing reductions. Tarek Anthony, the Daily Emerald editor in chief. Great to see you. Thanks for coming in.
Tarek Anthony: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Dunne: For folks who may not know, what is the Daily Emerald? Explain what the Emerald is.
Anthony: The Daily Emerald is the independent student media organization of the University of Oregon, and I like to stress that we're independent from the university, because that's what allows us to do most of the reporting we do about the university. The university has no control over our content and provides no funding. We are entirely self-funded by advertisements, donors, and other revenue streams. We have our weekly newspaper and daily online content, in addition to a business side where students sell all the ads. We work on all sorts of other projects to sustain ourselves.
Dunne: I imagine it's all student run. No faculty telling you what to do, and certainly administration can't say they want you to publish something specific.
Anthony: For sure. We have four professional staff members: our president and publisher, a vice president, a creative director, and an ad director. But in our bylaws they have no control over the content. We also have a board of directors, which is also separate. They appoint the editor in chief, but it's entirely student run. Anything you see there has been made by students and decided by students.
Dunne: How long have you been there?
Anthony: This is my third school year. I've been there since I started at UO.
Dunne: Did you always want to become the editor in chief?
Anthony: Honestly, I didn't really know how a newsroom worked when I got to UO. I worked on my high school newspaper, but I didn't know about roles like editor in chief or managing editor. After my first year I was definitely interested, and by my second year I was certain.
Dunne: Tell us what the job entails. What do you do as editor in chief of an independent student-run newspaper?
Anthony: I do a little bit of everything. My main responsibilities are overseeing our print product and print content, making sure that comes together. It's a whole week's process to produce one print edition, and on Fridays we go through the different proofs and do editing. Outside of that, I oversee more than 100 students, so that comes with its own daily responsibilities and issues, mediating between people, and so on. What the board likes to tell me is that my number one job is to make sure we don't get sued, so I'm always on the lookout for preventable issues and protecting the overall reputation and credibility of the organization.
Dunne: Talk about how the organization develops stories. Who decides what gets covered, and how do you assign a reporter to a story?
Anthony: For our news content, reporters pitch their own stories. They have beats for the city and the university: an administration beat, a student government beat, a city council beat. Those people are out there and they know what's going on better than I do or their editor does, so they pitch their own stories and get assigned from there. Of course, things come up. I'm always getting tips. I'm well connected with PIOs and other spokespeople around Lane County, so I'm always handing out assignments or ideas when I see things that need to be covered.
Dunne: I'm also curious about how much of your job is what you just described versus mentorship. You said you oversee more than 100 students. Talk about that aspect as well.
Anthony: We have a lot of people who come in as freshmen who have never done journalism before. They don't know if they like it, they don't know if they want to make a career out of it. I'm always trying to recognize people at varying levels of commitment. Some people who work at the Emerald want to be war photographers and are happy to get tear-gassed at the Federal Building. Others are biology majors who just want to have fun writing opinion columns. It's a constant balance, because in a professional newsroom it would be easier: they're all hired journalists who are there to do journalism. Here, people are there for different reasons, and they're all full-time college students with classes and other clubs. That's what I try to focus on.
Dunne: Pull that string a little more. What's the environment like at the Daily Emerald? You just described a lot of people with a lot of different interests. I imagine it's a challenge to keep everybody rowing in the same direction.
Anthony: Motivating people is a big part of it. It's a 10-week term, and by week six motivation can be a slow burn sometimes. Our community relies on us. I understand that you have six midterms this week, and homework, and another club, but you also signed up to do a job. At the same time, you have to have empathy for people who are really busy full-time college students. It's always a struggle to balance that while making sure the job still gets done at the end of the day. I pick up a lot of slack, and so do our fellow editors. We're always trying to help each other out because it's a chaotic line of work.
Dunne: You did a great job explaining the independence. Now explain how you cover the University of Oregon: the decision-making process, but also the daily interaction.
Anthony: The University of Oregon has a very large public relations team, and I have close relationships with a lot of those people. If anyone wants to get an interview with administration, you have to submit a media request, and they may or may not grant it. There's a very limited flow of information, and that's just the reality of working with a very large public bureaucracy. It's a constant back and forth, trying to keep a positive relationship with them so you can get as much information as possible.
Dunne: The organization has broken important stories about the U of O. It must feel gratifying to do that work, especially since it's also your college.
Anthony: Yeah, for sure. I try to keep myself as separated as possible. Obviously it's the university I attend, but I'm also closer to the university than anyone else in Eugene who could be covering it. I'm experiencing the budget cuts firsthand. I'm seeing my professors being laid off, or whatever the case is, and I try to use that to my advantage to stay plugged in so we can break those stories and develop those sources. There are a lot of disadvantages to covering the college you attend, so I try to find the advantages where I can.
Dunne: It's a strange time in journalism right now. A lot of newspapers are closing, and there's a tone from the federal government that sometimes frames journalism as the enemy of the people. What's it like running a student newspaper knowing this profession may be facing its greatest challenges?
Anthony: I think that makes it all the more important and all the more motivating for me personally, and for a lot of the people I work with. It's more challenging than it has been in the past, but it's not less important. In fact, it's more important when there are attacks from the federal government or from administration. Over my three years, I've seen the flow of information, access to interviews, and public records gradually decrease. That makes it more motivating to find inventive ways to break the news. At a university facing significant budget cuts and other issues impacting students, tuition, employees, and the Eugene community, it's super important to keep plugging away. There are definitely more roadblocks now than when I started, but the job still has to get done.
Dunne: Staffers or people you know might ask you for advice about the profession or the future of journalism. What do you tell them?
Anthony: We joke a lot about unemployment and low pay, but nobody goes into journalism expecting to get rich quick. That's pretty well accepted from a money and career standpoint. We're all fighting for the same internships and the same post-grad jobs, and we're all facing the same struggles. But people love what they do, so they continue to do it and do a good job at it, even though it's hard and it's even harder now to find any employment. There's a good community around that, and we try to make light of as much as possible, because otherwise it's just depressing.
Dunne: I assume you want to go on in journalism. Is that correct?
Anthony: Yes.
Dunne: If you could wave a magic wand and get your ideal starting job, what would it be?
Anthony: My passion, and where I started in journalism, is covering politics, both nationally and locally. That would be the ideal starting job. My long-term goal would be to cover Middle East politics. That's where I've focused my research in college and where my true interests lie.
Dunne: My last question: what was your most memorable story or experience as editor in chief, or just working at the Daily Emerald?
Anthony: There have been a lot of memorable experiences, but I would definitely say covering the Federal Building this past winter and getting tear-gassed alongside some of my closest friends, people I've been working with for three years. Being out there each night was quite an experience. I had covered the Palestine encampment extensively two years ago and thought that was pretty intense, but the Federal Building was nothing like it. Getting tear-gassed, running from federal agents who were screaming "press" and they just didn't care. It's an experience I will truly never forget, but one I'm grateful I had the opportunity to provide for our community, even under very unfortunate circumstances.
Dunne: Well, it sounds like you're ready for a career in journalism. He's Tarek Anthony, the Daily Emerald editor in chief. Tarek, thank you so much for coming in and chatting.
Anthony: Thank you.
Dunne: Now let's hear from our reporter about a library in our community on the budgetary ropes. Rebecca Hansen-White, reporter for KLCC. Rebecca, thanks so much for coming in.
Rebecca Hansen-White: Happy to be here.
Dunne: You've been doing a lot of stories around budgets and budget cuts. Tell us what's going on in Cottage Grove, specifically around the city budget cuts and how they're impacting the library.
Hansen-White: Cottage Grove's leaders have known for a couple of months that it's going to be a tough budget year. A previous finance person or team made some accounting mistakes regarding how much money they actually had, and they fell behind on their audits for a couple of years in a row. So they realized later in the process than they normally would in a budget cycle that they were going to have to make some serious changes, mostly in the form of cuts. That's paired with a structural imbalance many governments across Oregon face. Property taxes have plateaued because of long-term features of Oregon's taxation system, while pension costs and overall costs remain high. That's left Cottage Grove having to cut, and what has attracted the community's attention is the library. The current proposal would switch to a mostly volunteer model, keeping the head librarian and staffing everything else with volunteers. Some city council members and community members objected to that, so there's an effort to keep at least one part-time person. They need to cut around $500,000, and the library is one of the places they're looking. None of these decisions are final yet. There are still meetings before a vote, including opportunities for public comment. I talked to a community member who believes the library should have twice the allocation it's been left with and would like it to increase. The city manager has said they have to make cutbacks to ensure they can still operate the library.
Dunne: I know you talked to some opposition groups. Libraries are clearly a vital community resource. Did the city manager also talk about other ways the city might be cutting services?
Hansen-White: I don't have a lot of details on the other cuts, but Cottage Grove is in a multi-year reduction process. This is year two of a three-year effort to stop spending down their reserves. The library is one of several steps to shrink their footprint where they can, so they can stop drawing down their rainy day fund and eventually start building reserves again instead of constantly taking from them.
Dunne: While I have you here, you've also been covering political races and the primaries that happened just days ago. Talk about the contentious race in eastern Lane County between David Loveall and Springfield Mayor Sean Van Gordon. There was a concession recently. Talk about that.
Hansen-White: There are three commissioner races currently up for re-election. West Lane: the incumbent pretty easily won. East Lane is between Heather Buch, the incumbent, and Jake Pelroy, the challenger. She's a progressive, he's much more conservative. That one appears headed to a runoff, and I think both candidates have acknowledged they're ready for a rematch in November. A third candidate will be dropped, and those two will face off again. The race that's probably not going to a runoff is the one where the incumbent, David Loveall, conceded over the weekend and congratulated his opponent, Sean Van Gordon. Loveall had roughly 40% of the vote, Van Gordon had about 52%, and a third candidate took a small percentage. Loveall congratulated Van Gordon, who's the mayor of Springfield, and said he had no regrets and wouldn't do anything differently.
Dunne: Just remind folks: Loveall brought some controversy. I imagine that showed up in this election.
Hansen-White: He's had some hostile interactions with county employees, some complaints, and an investigation. He's now suing the county, alleging they violated his free speech. I don't know if that turned off some voters. His own framing is that his goal as an elected official is to hold people accountable and ask hard questions, even if it makes people uncomfortable. On the other side, Sean Van Gordon believes those interactions and situations have been a distraction from important issues. He wants to help people collaborate, work together, and refocus on the regional problems that have been struggling to get solved.
Dunne: And I think Van Gordon's statement often was that he wants to calm the waters. Is that correct?
Hansen-White: Yes.
Dunne: Going back to that East Lane County election, remind folks what triggers a runoff. What are the numbers?
Hansen-White: Getting the most votes isn't enough. You need more than 50% of the vote to win outright, so 50% plus one. In the May primary, Jake Pelroy got 48% and Heather Buch got 46%. Since neither met that threshold, they'll drop the third candidate and those two will face off in November. You have to get an actual majority of all votes, not just come in first.
Dunne: Rebecca Hansen-White covers education, politics, and just about everything. Thanks so much for coming in and talking with us. That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. When you click one of those lengthy terms of service contracts when signing up for something like a streaming service or a mobile phone contract, you may also be unknowingly signing up to waive your right to sue if something bad happens. Tomorrow on the show, a legal expert joins us to talk about the murky world of forced arbitration. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
