Stewart Vanderwilt shares and update on The Daily Texan with guests at the 2016 Daily Texan Awards in September. Photo by Gabriel Lopez.
At the 2016 Daily Texan Awards, Moody College of Communication Assistant Dean Stewart Vanderwilt shared an update on The Daily Texan and thanked the Friends of The Daily Texan for their support. We share his remarks in full below.
Thank you for the invitation to share a few remarks with you this evening on behalf of Dean Bernhardt, the Moody College of Communication and Texas Student Media.
Congratulations and thank you to Wanda Cash and Don Adams for your awards and your untiring efforts to protect freedom of information.
Congratulations as well to the award recipients and Hall of Fame inductees.
We are thrilled that the Daily Texan and Texas Student Media are both independent, and a part of the Moody College of Communication — because we believe our core values are aligned around shared beliefs and commitment to:
- the fundamental role of journalism and an independent press to foster a democratic and accountable society
- the powerful role of media to inform, entertain and transform lives
- and to the importance of creating an educational experience that brings together a critical approach to content creation, multi-platform distribution and marketplace understanding.
Our College researches and teaches these things – Texas Student Media and the Daily Texan pursues them.
Each of you here — from whatever era — has had the experience of the Daily Texan playing a critical role in contributing to and protecting the student campus experience.
You helped uncover scandals, contextualize trends and celebrate game-changing achievements. And you did all this between the hours of 4 PM and midnight while carrying, or at least telling your parents you were carrying, a full class load.
This tradition and its importance continues today.
Our students covered the horrible murder of a UT Student on campus with compassion, and a commitment to fact over hysteria, while grieving and processing this loss themselves.
They covered the debate over campus carry under extreme pressure from multiple interest groups — along with the subsequent implementation and a most creative act of campus civil disobedience.
And in a classic example of the power of the press, the Daily Texan reporting on a racially motivated assault lead to direct action and attention by the administration.
Our campus needs the Daily Texan!
The Texan reporters, editors, photographers, videographers, podcast producers and data visualizers are providing both witness, and the evidence locker of history.
This is all good, but is it sustainable? I would say more so now, than in the recent past.
We’re still printing. Not just figuratively, but literally – with lower cost and higher quality.
After exigent cuts, the Daily Texan and Texas Student Media are paying out more student stipends and wages because we believe that substantial and committed involvement in student media should not be reserved for only those who can afford to participate.
And this year, we’re so close to being in the black across the organization, that tonight’s bar tab would probably cover it.
This is a remarkable turnaround achieved by the student leadership, the professional staff led by Gerald Johnson, the Texas Student Media board and a watchful and supportive Friends of the Daily Texan.
The Friends contributions this past year reflect a commitment to the totality of the experience.
You supported outreach and engagement in the form of Daily Texan Forums. You supported deeply immersive reporting in helping send student reporters to the Olympics in Rio. You supported professional development for conference attendance and workplace communication style training. You bought advertising, directly supporting and demonstrating confidence in student media. And you honored the memory of a beloved editorial advisor in establishing the Michael Brick Award.
THANK YOU, for doing so.
These are difference-making investments – not achievable without your support – and I sincerely hope, on behalf of our students and the change they will make in the world, that you will continue to support the Daily Texan.
Thank you, and Hook ‘em Horns!