Looking back on my time at Fairfield, I feel honored to have been linked to athletics through my time as a cross-country runner, as well as sports editor for The Mirror.
As an athlete, I felt a great sense of pride sporting the red and white. As an editor, I felt it my responsibility to represent the department as fairly as possible.
Yet, with that said, my relationship with the athletic department has also forced me to recognize and deal with the so-called “sports apathy” that supposedly plagues this institution.
Administrators immediately assume it is the students that are to blame for the disinterest in athletics, yet my experiences have shown me otherwise. It is not a lack of interest the students possess, but a lack of information.
Over the past year, my writers and I have had more than our share of problems when it came to contacting the Sports Information Department concerning articles.
In the past, The Mirror staff has had its issues with the department and in many cases I would say it was The Mirror that was at fault in concerns of appropriately handling the situation.
Yet I entered upon my duties as sports editor with a greater concern for improving the relationship between the two entities, stating from the start that I wished to respect the department’s proper channels of attaining information. In the end, I feel that the Sports Information Department did not reciprocate that respect.
If I had one fault as sports editor this past year, it was that I remained too much of a fan and less an objective reporter. I sought almost to promote more than to observe.
Yet even this may have stemmed from a fear of being overcritical to the extent of losing access to certain athletic teams and players. And that simply cannot be.
Now, I am not saying the department was uncooperative with every single article written this year. There was many times in which my questions and requests were considered in timely fashion.
I’m also not saying that The Mirror did everything they could to contact the department and allowing them ample time to fulfill requests, as there were times in which an article was addressed at the last minute.
I also don’t expect The Mirror to be the number one priority for the Sports Information Department, as the thought alone is pretty ridiculous.
But when I’m forced, on a number of occasions, to cut a significant story late Tuesday night simply because a writer couldn’t contact coaches and players due to unresponsiveness from sports information, than maybe there’s something wrong.
When other schools respond to my questions literally within five minutes, and when it takes Fairfield’s department multiple days to respond to the same exact questions, than maybe it’s time to recognize and address a problem.
Whether the department wishes to recognizes it or not, The Mirror is a significant media outlet for this university, one which is closely linked to the student body. And it is a source that should be taken seriously.
Yet I’m not asking the Sports Information Department to one day looks upon The Mirror as an equal to that of The New York Times or The Boston Globe. I simply wish them to remember that when they preached and promoted the greatness of athletics at Fairfield, it was The Mirror that has always been the first to listen.
I’d like to state that this column was not meant to instigate any further issues between the organizations, but instead to encourage better communication in the future.
I hope that this is not looked upon as a personal attack. It is a mutual goal of The Mirror and Sports Information office to distribute information among students and fans. In almost every situation, what helps us, helps them too.
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