In almost every academic area of study, undergraduate students are encouraged to gain experience in their fields outside of the classroom. For internships on or off campus, A Geneseo student can receive up to 15 credit hours depending on the number of hours the student works weekly.
With such stress on supplementary work and hands-on experience, I find it troubling that no course credit is available for students running significant campus media operations such as The Lamron.
These student-run media platforms benefit the community while also providing the students working on them with invaluable experience relevant to their future careers. As the current Knights’ Life editor for The Lamron, I acknowledge my bias in my opinion that students working for such campus media platforms should have the option to receive some course credit. I also serve as a direct source of knowledge, however, about exactly how much time and dedication these e-board jobs entail. Many Geneseo students and faculty alike are unaware that these important student-operated media services necessitate the same commitment as an internship or part-time job.
Campus media outlets such as The Lamron allow the school and surrounding communities to stay in touch with local—and some national—news stories. Such media outlets also serve as historical records because of the logging and chronicling of news and events that occur. These groups are sometimes taken for granted, but their absence would surely be noticeable.
Despite the value of campus media, such undertakings demand a magnitude of time, effort and devotion from those students involved. I often find myself struggling to maintain a healthy balance between the amount of time my school work and studying demands in relation to the commitments of my position as a section editor for The Lamron. Both my grades and my contribution to the newspaper are important to me, but the line of priority can easily become blurred.
Because of my position on The Lamron, I receive a stipend from Campus Auxiliary Services for my weekly office hours. I am allowed only three paid office hours per week, when in reality I spend about 20 hours—sometimes more—each week working on The Lamron. My limited office hours are only a small aspect of my overall job responsibilities—which include editing staff writer articles, writing my own articles and working on Adobe InDesign for my section’s design and layout, which changes for each issue.
Although I’m grateful for the compensation I collect, it does not accurately reflect my labor. If the fact that I’m paid is seen as a deterrent for allowing internship credit to be given to me, my colleagues on The Lamron and other campus media boards, my answer is simply that students involved in paid internships are not denied their due credit.
If working for The Lamron and other campus media came hand-in-hand with the opportunity for internship credit, I think many more students would be interested in joining campus media organization and reaping the benefits that will last a lifetime.
Making these indispensable, hands-on opportunities appealing to other students through offering some course credit would be advantageous to both students and the community alike.