JANUARY 13, 1961
Staff Triumphs Over Confusion
These are some of the numerous sounds of the printshop familiar to any Westerner staff member. In spite of the racket of linotype, pounding of type into galleys, a wailing song emitted from a radio, and roar of the presses, this 14-man crew manages to put out a paper full of stories, sports, and past and future events.
To an outsider, trying to work in the mass confusion might seem impossible, but to the staff it is an ordinary night-before-the-paper-comes-out at the print shop. People are invariably scattered all over the place. Some are reading and correcting proof sheets against the original stories, the page editors and their assistants are cutting, pasting, and hoping their pages will fit, and anyone else can often be found writing lost headlines or rewriting ones that, for some reason, don't fit.
After all the pages are complete the staff can relax and let the printers take over. It is quite an experience to watch the printer work so swiftly at setting up type, especially when it is completely backwards and upside down. This done, he runs off a galley proof to be read for a final time and checked for errors.
All it takes to be a part of this team is a year's training in English III J (journalism) and about an ounce of printer's ink in your blood. If you are a freshman, sophomore, or junior and think you would enjoy writing features, news stories, or sports, plan to take English III J. You might be just what the Westerner ordered. There is also a need for artists, photographers, and just anyone who likes newspapers.
Through journalism and practical experience of being a staff member, many students find that this is a field they want to pursue as a career. Two years of exposure to journalism is only a taste of what it is really like. It can tell you, though, whether or not you're suited for that field or if you think you'd like it as a life-time career. If you are interested, why not plan on taking English III J in your junior year? Who knows, maybe you'll become a world renowned news -caster, magazine publisher, or editor of a Pulitzer prize newspaper.