Ryan Bisesi
The Student Media Authority hired five students for some of the most influential positions on campus.
All Student Media branches except two, editors for the Agromeck and the Windhover will take charge of their respective publications April 1. The other two will change leadership June 1, after the annual issue is complete.
Appointees for positions at Agromeck, Technician, Windhover and WKNC were uncontested, and the current editor in chief of Nubian Message will remain in her position.
Brian Ware, the new general manager of WKNC, said he is glad the board hired him, but “it would feel better if I had won over an opponent.”
“I have wanted this job since I first became a DJ,” Ware, a junior in communication, said. “I have definitely been keeping my eye on it.”
Keitris Weathersbe, a junior in communication, said she was “very excited” to keep her position, even though she said she was nervous to compete against Sade Graves, a co-worker, for the position.
“I hold the interest of the reader at heart and I take it very seriously,” she said. “I’m passionate about [Nubian Message] and I think about it all the time.”
During the interview process, each candidate stressed the importance of credibility in his or her media organization.
“I want to institute changes that are gradual — changes that people will notice over time,” Tyler Dukes, hired Wednesday as the new editor in chief of Technician, said. “I hope people will notice as time goes on that the stories are really good.”
Dukes, who has served as news editor for one year, said it would be “difficult” to no longer be direct supervisor of the news department.
“News has been my life for three years,” Dukes, a junior in science, technology and society, said. “I am taking another position and looking at the paper as a whole, but I’m still going to use my experience to improve the news section, [but] I will delegate that to someone else.”
Cynthia Rouf, the newly hired editor of Agromeck, has served as a section editor for the past year. She said she wants to increase awareness and popularity of the yearbook.
“Not many people know about Agromeck,” Rouf, a junior in zoology, said. “But it is a historical documentation of University life.”
Lauren Gould, the next editor of Windhover, said she plans to revise the literary magazine inside and out.
“I plan to expand the staff and make it a great team,” Gould, a junior in English, said. “I want to get more people involved and appeal to a larger audience.”
Each new hire was ambitious of the upcoming year and seemed willing to take on the pressure associated with being in charge of a media organization.
“I have never seen our schedule so packed with DJs,” Ware said. “Everybody shares the same goal — that we should make this station sound good.”
Americana, N.C. State’s online magazine, was the only medium to have no applicants for new leadership.
Following the board meeting, Emmanual Lipscomb, current editor, said he “had no clue” what is in the future for Americana.