Only once before in my college career have I noticed that the majority of The Quad student newspapers were deliberately removed from the various stands on campus. It happened again on Valentine’s. And I don’t think they were taken as a gift for someone. The first time was the Sept. 29, 2008 issue. At our staff meeting we found out several copies were found in the dumpster. Picking up copies we still had in our office, we paged through looking at every article and picture. To this day I’m still baffled as to why the newspapers were removed by a WCU student(s).
I spent the end of my Valentine’s Day wondering what was in the newspaper that someone didn’t want students, faculty and other WCU employees to see. I have a couple guesses but, being a journalist, I’d rather know for sure.
Typically the new issues are placed on stands on Mondays. This Monday however, someone wasted no time picking up The Quad, and by picked up I mean took every copy instead of just one. By Monday night, a number of stands around campus were empty.
I live in a residence hall that this person targeted. With the newspapers on stands in the late afternoon, the papers in my dorm were absent by 10 p.m. I’ll also have you know that the guilty party in question was spotted. I’m not offended that they took my newspaper. Despite all the hours we spend putting the newspaper together, I had to laugh at the effort made to destroy that work. This person was seen taking the whole stack of newspapers, wearing a purple WCU sweatshirt with a yellow Ram on the back. I mean, I figured a non-student wouldn’t do that anyway. I just question their school spirit considering they stole the student newspaper.
Geez, taking our newspapers. Now that’s just mean. Not only did I have three articles published, but I thought of how you robbed Kristin Hector’s publicity of being crowned Miss WCU 2011.
I can’t say for sure what this person didn’t want people to read, but their actions of removing the paper definitely shows that people are reading enough for there to be a fear of a sizeable audience.
I want people to pick up a copy of The Quad and want to know what’s happening on their campus. I’ll be the first to admit that I love seeing people pick up the newspaper. It’s a great way to see the work we put into the newspaper is paying off.
If you remove my papers, we’ll be putting more on the stands. They were removed Monday night. We replaced them on Tuesday. We’re only a weekly newspaper to begin with. If we need to, we’ll put the issue on stands daily. You can count on it.
-Ginger