They say: 

“The Red & Black is anti-Greek.”

“The Red & Black doesn’t cover the most important issues at the University.”

“The Red & Black doesn’t respect students’ privacy.”

BINOWSK

You have all heard these allegations and debated them with your friends.

But how many of you have actually attempted to do something?

Regardless of how you truly feel about the newspaper, we want to hear from you! You can call me, the recruitment editor, at 706-433-3028 or e-mail me at bbinowski@randb.com so that we can talk about you joining our staff and bringing your own reporting and writing skills to the service of the University community.

As the recruitment editor of The Red & Black, I meet with eager, aspiring journalists every day, but I see that a high concentration of journalism students with no Greek affiliation contact me. I oftentimes wonder where all the Greek, non-journalism majors are and why they don’t seek out The Red & Black as a forum to express their opinions.

As a magazines major, I have come to understand that the best way to shape public opinion and influence the news is to get involved — to write an opinions column, suggest a news story or have a voice in the office.

Much preparation and discussion goes on behind the scenes at The Red & Black, so the best way to learn about journalism and understand why we make the decisions we do is to get involved — as a designer, editor, photographer or writer.

All it takes is one e-mail or phone call to get started. We want to know what you have to say.

If you know something positive that your Greek organization is doing, send us a press release in an e-mail with the appropriate contact information. If you feel as though South Campus needs more coverage in The Red & Black, suggest a story idea to one of our editors about a specific issue. And, if you are interested in becoming a writer or reporter, call or e-mail me to help you get started.

After you take the first step, one of us will get in touch with you.

As a matter of fact, my job as recruitment editor is to introduce students like you to the newsroom and make you feel at home. 

Once I receive an e-mail from you or other contributing writers, I will set up a time for us to meet at The Red & Black office at 540 Baxter Street in order to discuss the recruitment process more in depth and answer any questions that you may have. 

After all, I was in your shoes just two years ago. And if you have no journalism experience, do not worry. I, and many of the other editors at the office, will teach you.

In an attempt to do so, we require all of our reporters to write at least three articles as a contributing writer before becoming a regular staff member. After each article is written, I will meet with the contributing writer to discuss the writing and reporting process more in-depth.

We do this so that writers can learn — or refresh their memories on — the basics of news writing and reporting before writing for the paper regularly.

We understand the demands and ethical dilemmas of a daily newspaper, and we want you to understand those too. We want you to help us make our paper better.

It doesn’t matter whether you want to write news, variety or sports, design our front page, express your opinions about a hot topic or take photos for a breaking story. We want to hear from you.

— Brittany Binowski is a senior from Conyers majoring in  magazines.