SA: BSN Managing Sports Editor Fellow ()
Summary, Scope, and Responsibilities
Bates Student Newspaper Fellows serve as members of the managerial team for the Bates Student Newspaper. Fellows aim to provide a space for topics of interest to Bates students and the Bates community to be investigated and shared. Fellows work to provide an open, equitable, and accessible opportunity for all community members to engage with. The Bates Student Newspaper Fellows recognize that this position is an educational opportunity in which students grow personally and professionally.
Accountability
Every newspaper that adheres to sound ethical journalistic practices is accountable to its readers. It is advisable to share an easily searchable list of ethical practices policies, including correcting its own mistakes, with readers, i.e. one that lives on the website of The Bates Student.
Editorial leaders at The Bates Student are charged with administering those practices, including protecting The Bates Student from legal action by parties who may claim student journalists have been negligent, including non-paid contributing writers in reporting facts or defamed an individual. Because of the editorial independence of The Bates Student from Bates College, student journalists would face legal consequences in the event such charges would be found to be true.
Even sound editorial judgements may lead to disputes and conflicts with other students, or with faculty and or staff members. In that event:
The editorial team should work with the complainant to resolve disputes amicably and professionally, seeking a clear and fair resolution process. This process should be established by the Bates student Fellowship teams, shared with the newspaper’s advisor, and outlined under the ethical practices and policies on The Bates Student website.
The editorial team will establish a procedure and process to handle internal conflicts or external complaints related to content, including photography and all editorial content, from the body of editorial material to headlines and captions. This would include establishing a policy for issuing corrections, clarifications or, less typically, retracting a story or other printed material. Many if not most publications make clarifications or corrections within the text of the story as it appears, whether in line or in print, with a note at the bottom of the story letting readers know a correction has been made. The corrections policy should be included within the ethical practices and policies section of the website.
The editorial team will establish a procedure and process to handle internal conflicts or external complaints related to content and share this with the newspaper’s advisor.
Leadership Development
Campus Life embeds the Bates Leads Framework into its student leadership and employment positions. The following competencies are most relevant to this position:
Consciousness of Self & Impact: Awareness of one’s beliefs, values, attitudes, and emotions; recognition that these are shaped by cultural context and other external forces. Self-awareness, including one’s inherited and positional power and privilege. Awareness of one’s impact on individuals and community, recognizing the impact of each action and inaction
Bates Student Newspaper Fellows will be most successful if they are able to know their own strengths and apply that knowledge to their work with other members of the Bates Student Newspaper staff, students, and the community. This includes considering the impact of one’s words and actions on others and communities; working to report and publish stories free from impropriety; and being a kind community member.
Commitment: The passion, energy, creativity, and follow-through one brings to ideas, pursuits, and collective goals.
This position involves a high level of responsibility, and requires individuals to hold themselves and others accountable by meeting deadlines, attending meetings and professional development opportunities, and working to produce the best work possible.
Collaboration: Working reciprocally with others. Working across differences to achieve a shared goal. Bringing multiple perspectives, diverse experiences, and individual creativity to bear on a pursuit.
This position requires working with Bates Student Newspaper colleagues, various Bates students, faculty and staff, and the community more broadly.
Common Purpose: Cultivating a shared goal, direction, and sense of responsibility.
Listening, learning, and acting together toward a shared goal.
This position requires an ability to build consensus and share the work equitably. While members of the Bates Student Newspaper may have different roles and responsibilities, collectively, each fellow is working toward a common purpose: to effectively share information and news with the campus community, covering issues carefully and thoughtfully to provide independent and responsible journalism.
Congruence: Alignment of values, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions with actions in the world.
Bates Student Newspaper Fellows act and communicate with consistency, honesty, and transparency. Integrate individual and collective values. Fellows are listening to other peoples “why” and are willing to challenge their one “why.”
Controversy: Acknowledging conflict, controversy, and dissent as opportunities for new insight, or new direction or deeper relationships. Disagreeing with others in a spirit of curiosity and learning. Disagreeing or dissenting from the norm without dehumanizing others.
At times, Bates Student Newspaper fellows and members may disagree with each other, with the Bates community, and the community more broadly. It is crucial in these moments to communicate honestly, openly, respectfully, and to work to resolve conflict through collaboration and sometimes compromise.
Fellows will work to develop the ability to use difference as a point of strength, creative intervention, growth, and direction.
Fellows will learn to welcome dissenting perspectives and different points of view.
Civic Agency: Embracing one’s capacity and responsibility to work with others to advance communal goals. Actively supporting people’s full participation in the decisions, systems, and processes that impact their lives and communities. Recognizing the impact of one’s choices on others.
Bates Student Newspaper Fellows are exploring and exposing injustices, challenges, and various perspectives. Fellows are open to having their position or perspective challenged and are open to feedback on their impact.