by The purpose of education is learning.
So why is it that NCC’s Athletics department is committed to making it as difficult as possible for student journalists to learn?
Athletics have continually stonewalled our journalists’ attempts to improve students’ knowledge and support for our teams.
To speak to coaches and players about their victories and losses, Athletics demands we get approval.
That approval process runs like this:
Athletic Director Troy Tucker sends us to Head Coach Adrian Yaguez for help facilitating interviews with coaches and players. Yaguez then directs us back to Tucker, and from there the trail runs cold.
We receive no response from Tucker and are left frustrated and puzzled why we have to jump over so many hurdles to do our job as journalists.
And when we’ve successfully jumped over those hurdles, no victory awaits us at the end. We win no gold medals, not even a simple conversation with the Athletics department or its athletes.
The Commuter’s faculty adviser, Rob Hays, and Christine Pense, dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, reached out to Tucker in an attempt to reach an agreement, which respects Athletics control over its department but doesn’t obstruct our journalists’ path to learning. But once again, our trail ran cold.
The consequence: No stories about NCC athletes in The Commuter.
I’m requesting that our journalists have easy access to players with whom we have classes and do group projects, and easy access to coaches who are influential parts of those players’ lives.
Right now, we’re getting nowhere and our readers and student journalists suffer.
We want to inform the NCC community about Spartan victories so the community can celebrate players’ wins and be a support system holding players up during losses.
We want our fellow journalists and classmates to be able to learn by doing. We want our education to serve its purpose.
