Being a Slater is a lot of work.

Let me specify: being a part of Slate management or in a leadership position for another student media organization — SUTV, PRSSA or WSYC — is an incredible time commitment.

We all, of course, have set meetings, broadcasts and other obligations that take up roughly the same amount of time each week, but the work of a student journalist is incredibly dependent on the news of the week.

We may have one week where it is smooth sailing, and we will meet all of our deadlines easily. However, this semester has seen several instances of breaking news and unexpected developments that have sparked many hours of impromptu meetings in The Slate office and so many emails sent.

All of this work comes as we in student media continue to deal with massive budget cuts to our organizations as a result of decisions made by SGA last semester. We are working arguably harder than ever while being made to feel less and less valued by individuals within our community.

Although feeling drastically overworked and underpaid may be as close of an experience to a genuine journalist as we will get while still in college, we deserve to be recognized for the work that we put in to serve Shippensburg University. That does not mean, however, that any student journalist at SU does lackluster work simply because we are unpaid. 

It is essential to note that I do not put any blame on the communications, journalism and media department. We have incredibly supportive professors who do what they can to make life easier for students who work so hard for the success of student media. 

Enacting policies that would allow for leadership within student media to be compensated would involve conversations between a number of high-level campus partners, some of which are beyond my authority, but they are conversations that should happen.

This university could undoubtedly find, for example, $5,000 a year to divide amongst leaders of The Slate, SUTV, PRSSA and WSYC. We are significantly more visible and do far more for this campus than many other groups that receive funding from SGA and SUSSI, and we deserve to be paid our worth. 

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