Page 3 March 26, 2008 EDITORIAL

our. That’s the number of issues The Cadre has put out this year. This bi-weekly paper hasn’t even been able to release an issue in twice that time. Given the date, that’s an issue about once every six weeks. It’s four issues of wasted money, paid for by the students.

In about four issues, this year’s ' Cadre has had a managing editor quit, numerous reporters and con- tributors leave, and an editor-in- chief go MIA.

That’s why I’m here. I’m the new editor-in-chief, for at least the rest of the school year.

And for my first editorial, I’m issuing a formal apology on behalf of The Cadre to the student body for the horrible performance of the paper this year. I’ll also do my best to give an explanation.

The paper had its share of issues right away. There were few people hired, including reporters and edi- tors. Originally passed up by the hir- ing board, I was called in as produc- tion editor in hopes of releasing an issue of the paper, which was already about a month behind sched- ule.

When stories started piling in, a startling realization came to. Many reporters had no journalism training, and therefore had little idea of how to write a news-style article. Rick MacLean, a journalism instructor at Holland College, was quickly brought in to teach the staff the

Second

By

Lucas McInnis Editor-in-chief

basics of journalistic writing.

Once our reporters were on their way we started again to release a paper. But we again hit a snag.

During the time we attempted to release an issue we lost our manag- ing editor.

We pushed on despite and eventu- ally hired a new ME.

Putting together the paper was more of a task than I had expected. While our reporters were now com- petent writers, they still didn’t real- ize one of the most important parts of the newspaper: photos. Entire sections of the paper were in com- plete text. Completely unappealing to the eye of the average reader.

Still, we pushed on, releasing three more issues. All late. Far from being released on the twice-a-month schedule we were expected to fol- low. But we finally found a light at the end of the tunnel with news the paper would be receiving a new Mac system, far superior from the PC setup we’ve used in the past and up to that point.

It took weeks for the system to

arrive. This, naturally, was at the fault of no one person. There’s no controlling when the equipment

_would show up except to call and

ask the company. I still went to the office daily or every other day to see if our equipment had shown up.

And finally one day I walked in to find two boxes on the table in the centre of our room with the note “It’s here, buddy.”

Happy to see The Cadre was final- ly back in business, and with new and improved equipment, I left to await the next day when the new programs would hopefully be set up.

After days, I found the equipment in the same place on the table, unopened. I attempted to set up the programs myself, to:no success.

More days went by until I finally asked what was going on. I was then told no one seemed to know where our editor-in-chief was, nor would he reply to any e-mails or phone messages. It was about a day after this I was asked to attend a board meeting for The Cadre.

In the meeting I was told that with

UPE]! Cadre

the less-than-stellar performace of our top editor, he would be fired. The Cadre again was under-staffed.

Receiving e-mails in the Cadre’s G- mail account from concerned read- ers and writers, I sent out mail stat- ing there was little understanding as to what was going on, but they would be informed as soon as word came.

Another couple of days later I was asked to take over The Cadre in hopes of releasing at least one more issue.

There were sounds of rejoice from my fellow journalism students who felt the school newspaper was in the hands of the people who should have held it all along: the reporters.

Immediately we started work on the paper you see before you today, but all the activity which proceeded the downfalls of the paper in the beginning of the year does not make up for the poor performance which lead up to this point. And that’s why I’m using my editorial to say ’'m sorry.

I hope you will continue to read The Cadre as each edition comes out.

Deadlines are key to any newsroom and deadlines have not been met this year but that is going to change. Either this year or next.

The Cadre 550 University Ave. Room 218 Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3 Tel: 566-0629 Fax: 5660979 upeicadre@gmail.com http://cadre.upei.ca Editor-in-chief Lucas McInnis Managing Editor Bethany Lassaline Sports Editor Josh Lewis Reporters AdamMorrison Jarrod Yeo Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh Krista MacLean

The Cadre is an editorially autonmous publication of the University of Prince Edward Island Student Union Inc. and the official student newspaper of the University of Prince Edward Island. The Cadre reserves the right not to pun- lish any submission which may repre- sent a conflict of interest for the author. This includes any subject matter for any individual group, team or department pertaining to any _ self-promotional activity, academic endeavour or sport- ing event, but it not limited to these topics.

The opinions expressed in columns or letters are those of the authors and not necessarily that of The Cadre, its staff, or the UPEI Student Union Inc. The Cadre reserves the right to edit submis- sions for content and/or clarity. All materials contained herein, except advertising or where indicated other- wise, are copyriight 2007 by The Cadre and protected under Canadian copyright laws. Material submitted and print here- in become the property of The Cadre, and may not be reprinted without per- mission. Reprint requests may be

directed to the Managing Editor.

The Cadre is published biweekly from September April.

The Cadre is a full member of Canadian University Press (CUP). The Cadre is represented by Campus Plus for multi- market advertising. Campus Plus can be reached at 1-800-265-5372.

Letters to the editor and submissions from contributors should be sent to upeicadre@gmail.com. All articles must include name and contact infor- mation