STUDENT LIFE
Paper TrailA Day in the Life of the CD
by Brittany Averette
11 A.M.
Students are pouring into Newcomb Hall, the between-class pit stop for most everyone on Grounds. Mike Slaven (Col ’07) is among them, but instead of meeting friends at the dining hall, he cuts from the crowd and heads downstairs into the basement. The Cavalier Daily’s editor in chief is making his first trip of the day to the newspaper’s headquarters. In the quiet basement, industrial pipes line the ceiling and flickering fluorescent lights replace windows. But this is where Slaven, and the rest of the Cavalier Daily team volunteers to spend 12 or 13 hours a day, five days a week. “It’s an organization that thrives on the dedication of its staff,” Slaven says. “I can’t explain why they keep coming back.”
Staffers have made the best of their small office space. Framed front pages decorate the walls; old couches and tables hold backpacks, food wrappers and empty soda cans. A small television sits tuned to CNN. Rows of computers line and segment the newsroom.
Though not ideal, the basement is home. It also represents the final step in the Cavalier Daily’s autonomy. Nearly a decade ago, they began paying rent to the University for use of the space, making the student-run newspaper completely independent.
NOON
Slaven spends this time answering phone calls and replying to the barrage of e-mail he receives daily. For him, it’s not only the journalistic element that’s exciting; it’s also the “logistics of running a business and such a large staff,” he says.
A steady trickle of associate editors and staff writers begins to appear, dashing into the office between classes to pick up an assignment or call a potential contact.
News editor Chris Hall (Col ’07) scours Internet news sites and reviews a list of events around Grounds to determine what’s newsworthy. Hall is proud of the news team, which has made efforts to become increasingly investigative and hard-hitting in its reporting. “We all work to inspire each other. Everyone does what it takes to get out there and get it done,” he says.
Hall joined the CD as a staff writer, becoming an associate news editor only four months later. After the “initial shock” wore off, he embraced his role. “I’ve really appreciated the opportunity to understand the lives of people at the University, the underground dynamic of the University,” he says.
3 P.M.
Marisa Roman (Col ’09), a first-year staff writer, sits front and center in Wilson Hall auditorium. She’s there for a lecture by U.S. Sen. John Warner (Law ’53) to a politics class. Afterward, Roman sticks close to the senator as he fields questions from reporters. On one shoulder, she balances a large bag, packed with books and notes for her regular classes. She carries a reporter’s pad, writing furiously as Warner speaks.
Roman asks Warner what message he wants to convey to students. His response: to communicate the importance of participation in civic life, which is necessary for a democracy to prosper. Roman scribbles down his answer without breaking eye contact. Once the senator exits, Roman turns quickly and marches back to the newsroom. She has phone calls to make.
“I think it’s important for the students, faculty and community members on and off Grounds to be aware of current events and issues surrounding the University,” she says. Although she may not realize it, Roman is following Warner’s advice, simply by volunteering on the CD staff.
4 P.M.
Hall gets word of an immigration rally in the amphitheater. He hurriedly calls Sam Stollar (Col ’08), the photo editor, on his cell phone. Stollar is “of course” in class. Luckily, he had the foresight to take pictures when he discovered the rally en route to class.
Meanwhile, the managing board—the editor in chief, executive editor, managing editor, chief financial officer and operations manager—are holed up in Slaven’s office discussing the lead editorial, which represents the managing board’s viewpoint on a particular topic. They throw around many ideas, but reach no consensus.
At 5, their discussion is interrupted by a meeting with the newly elected Honor Committee, which wants to foster better dialogue between the committee and the newspaper.
6 P.M.
The newsroom is buzzing. Most of the associate editors and staff writers have returned from their assignments. Most are on the phone, leaving messages with their contacts. The CD has strict guidelines about how reporters garner information. They are not allowed to pull a quotation from an e-mail, for example; they must hear it directly from the source’s mouth. From this point on, it’s a waiting game. The writers sit by their phones, review their notes or work on homework. While it’s a jovial atmosphere, there is an underlying urgency. If a writer can’t confirm a fact by the 7 p.m.copy deadline, Hall may have to drop the article.
“This place inspires high standards and a great work ethic,” says Slaven. “Everyone takes themselves seriously and professionally down here.”
It’s a far cry from the Cavalier Daily of the first half of the century. Until the 1960s, fraternities and societies ruled the newspaper, cornering every election and ensuring that the newspaper, instead of serving as a serious journalistic endeavor, was simply another extra-curricular social gathering. Today’s Cavalier Daily is one of the top independent, student-run college newspapers in the nation. “We consistently win professional awards,” Slaven says, including 11 from the Virginia Press Association in 2005.
7 P.M.
The copy deadline looms when Hall receives a press release: Tim Naftali, a faculty member in the Miller Center of Public Affairs, has been chosen as the first director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. This is front-page news. While it’s rare that the news editor himself takes on writing responsibility, at this time in the night, there is no one else available. Hall immediately calls Naftali at home and notifies the production crew to make space on the front page.
At 7:30, the topic for the lead editorial is still undecided, much to the chagrin of Herb Ladley (Col ’08), the executive editor, who oversees the opinion section and writes the editorial. He barges into Slaven’s office. “Honestly, right now I can adopt any opinion. I just want to write it and go take my midterm,” Ladley says desperately. His normal class obligations require him to leave with the situation still unresolved.
The editorial staff is hunkering down for a long night. It’s easy to forget that these hard-working people are students, with full class schedules. “You have to have a love for the institution, the place and the people,” Slaven says. Their involvement will certainly look great on a resumé, but, according to Slaven, a large portion of the staff never goes into journalism. “What draws people down here is a sense of duty,” he says. “That, and to make friends.”
Roman is wrapping up her piece on Warner’s visit. She’s heard back from everyone she’d contacted—always an iffy proposition. “A lot of people don’t want to talk to us, since we’re just a student paper,” she says. Although she has a large homework load of her own, she takes the time to be precise in her reporting. “I’d rather spend six hours making sure that my sources and facts are correct, rather than one hour on an inaccurate piece,” she says.
8 P.M.
An hour past the copy deadline, when he should be assigning headlines, Hall finally sits down to write the Naftali piece. Alex Sellinger (Col ’07), the managing editor, walks quickly up to Hall’s desk. “How close are you to printing the minis for the front page?” he asks. “Not close at all,” Hall replies.
Empty food containers from the dining hall upstairs litter the newsroom. The long and tedious editorial process is just beginning. The first “minis”—print-outs of a Cavalier Daily page, as it will appear the next day—appear on Slaven’s desk for final approval. Each editor in the hierarchy has combed through the pages, looking for errors and deciding if a story is suitable to run. The process takes hours.
9 P.M.
Most of the associate editors and staff writers have left for the night. Section editors sit silently, brows furrowed over their computers. Members of the managing board are quiet in their offices, leaning closely over the minis. Each has a differently colored pen in hand, to distinguish among their markings.
At 9:45, Sellinger finds a potential conflict of interest with a columnist. The column endorses a particular club at U.Va., of which the columnist is a member. “We might as well print a public service announcement,” he bemoans. Sellinger looks for another way to fill the space.
The minis pile up on Slaven’s desk, colorful with corrections from previous rounds of proofreading. He concentrates on each page, pen in hand, regularly marking the page and occasionally consulting the bound Cavalier Daily stylebook.
11 P.M.
The noise of the production room contrasts with the quiet of the newsroom. Final revisions are being made to layouts. Section editors run in and out, making the last changes to their copy.
It’s 11:30 when Herb Ladley finishes writing the lead editorial. He and the rest of the managing board trudge into Slaven’s office to review it. As Ladley reads aloud, his fellow editors lounge on the worn couch or the floor, listening closely. After almost every sentence, someone pipes up, suggesting a revision of a word or phrase. Occasionally, there are larger disagreements over content. The lead editorial’s final perspective is typically moderate, but always “a bit cynical and a tinge sarcastic,” says Slaven. “We take it seriously, but there’s an element of non-seriousness. We recognize there are other, valid viewpoints out there.”
The CD has not always enjoyed such freedom of content. In the late 1970s, increasingly frustrated with the paper’s coverage and derisive editorials, the Board of Visitors established a media board to oversee the student press. After the Cavalier Daily refused to recognize its authority, President Frank L. Hereford revoked University support for the paper, including its office space. After a bitter battle that drew national news coverage, the Cavalier Daily and the administration compromised: the Board of Visitors’ authority extended to some of the paper’s operations, but not to the content.
Since then, the Cavalier Daily has worked to secure its independence from the University. Its operations are now 100 percent funded by advertising revenue. Pride in that autonomy runs throughout the entire staff. “When I get calls from angry readers, they often demand to speak to an adult, or our adviser. I say, ‘You’re talking to him. We make all the decisions around here,’” Hall says.
1 A.M.
The official deadline is 1:15 a.m., when the pages roll out to the Culpeper Star-Exponent, which has printed the Cavalier Daily since the 1960s. Technology allows the production team to transmit the pages electronically. Not long ago, layouts had to be driven over each night. At around 4 a.m., a paid courier will pick up the freshly printed pages from Culpeper and distribute the 10,000 copies to stands around the University and Charlottesville.
Tonight, despite some minor setbacks, the paper rolls out a few minutes ahead of schedule. “Today was a pretty slow news day,” Slaven says. One by one, the remaining staffers shut down their computers and leave for the night. Slaven remains, answering a few lingering e-mails and locking up.
2 A.M.
Newcomb Hall is silent. The dining hall doors are locked. The lights are out. Each step Slaven takes as he ascends from the basement echoes throughout the empty stairwell. He’s been here for nearly 15 hours, leaving only twice to attend lectures. He’s tired but satisfied. Slaven, with the rest of the Cavalier Daily team, will be back tomorrow.
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