I’m going to miss you, UNI. I’m going to miss this campus, our professors, our students, our classes, our paper. It has been an amazaing three years here and it’s definitely a bittersweet farewell.
I’m graduating after five years of college and I hear I’m supposed to “adult” soon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely excited to be done with my college career, but parting with a piece of my life that has been fundamental in my social, intellectual and overall development is kind of scary.
Coming to UNI after attending a community college, I never would have imagined how involved I would become in the Northern Iowan, but here I am, at the end of my editorship, ready to take on the next challenge.
But first, a few thank you’s. To the Northern Iowan Board of Directors: Thank you for selecting me to serve this campus as the executive editor. I’ve learned so much on leading, on running a newspaper, on editing and on furthering the Northern Iowan.
This has been one of the most difficult jobs I have ever had and I wouldn’t take it back for anything.
I feel confident that I can apply what I’ve learned here to my future career. I am so grateful for the opportunity you have given me.
To my staff, old and new: You have been so supportive and dependable this past year, I don’t know how I will ever be able to thank you enough. Editors, writers and columnists alike, you have produced amazing content and have been an amazing team, I don’t know where we would be without you.
Together, we have been able to publish a great variety of articles, covering things from Northern Iowa Student Government elections, to student support movements, to diversity issues on campus. I’m so proud of you all for stepping up and taking on the challenges you did; it has helped us all grow.
To the UNI campus: thank you for supporting the Northern Iowan. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without your help, support or feedback. I hope the campus continues to work with the NI to build upon its legacy and create a campus that understands the importance of student news and student reporting. It’s a dying art, but keep it alive as long as you can.
To the NI’s advisor: Laura, I owe you so much. Not only as a mentee, but also as a reporter. Your knowledge and practice of reporting is so profound and so helpful. You have taught me so much on how to be a better editor, how to be a better reporter and how to be a better leader.
I will miss your anecdotes and your endless supply of advice. I hope Nick will learn as much (or more) as I have from you and I can’t wait to see how the NI continues to grow under your advisor viser.
To a special professor: Nikki, you have taught me so much on how to be a better person, how to be a positive person and, more importantly, how to cope with things in the past. I never thought I would connect so well with a professor on campus, let alone that I would trust a professor with so much of my life’s story.
You’ve given me hope, resiliency and the push I needed to move on. Thank you. I will never forget what you’ve done for me.
Second, I wish next year’s crew a hearty good luck. Yes, it will be hard, but it will be worth it. You will take away so much from working at the NI and every last bit is worth it. Just keep pushing through, keep challenging writers, keep challenging yourself. You’ll make mistakes and that’s OK; that’s why you’re here, to make mistakes, learn from them and move forward.
I’m so proud of you all and I’ll be keeping tabs on the NI as the next year progresses. Don’t forget to have fun, though!
Third, although this is the end of my college career, I will forever be a Proud Panther. The UNI community is such a wonderful and impactful place to be. I’m glad I chose you, UNI.
Lastly, the scary part: what am I going to do with my life? Uhhh… ask me again at the end of my summer. I’ve accepted a position as a whitewater raft guide trainee in Colorado. Whitewater sports are a passion of mine and I look forward to what the summer has in store for me, and I have yet to think about anything beyond Labor Day; to me, that’s exciting and frightening at the same time.
So, here’s to a new academic year, new staff and new experiences: good luck, have fun and keep on keepin’ on.
-Amber Rouse, executive editor
Mike Klassen, UNI Business Emeritus Professor • Dec 13, 2017 at 3:19 pm
The purchase of University Book and Supply by UNI looks like a bad deal in light of the fact that traditional brick-and-mortar retail purchases have been getting a real shellacking by online buying for the last 10 years. Online activity is particularly strong in (guess what?) the sale of books and clothing.
On its face, the deal looks like a good idea. Since 2002, I have told my business students that UNI needs to establish an active direct marketing business for its licensed goods. The value in doing is not so much with sales, as the collection of customer data which could be interfaced with prospective student and donor information. I envisioned an online presence and outsourcing distribution operating primarily from a couple of rooms in existing buildings, not thousands of square footage requiring a couple of dozen staff, tens of thousands of dollars of inventory, and one ginormous utility bill.
Short of backing out of the deal, I advise the university to decrease its merchandise display at the USB location to a fraction of floor space confined primarily to the front southeast corner of the store with maximum street exposure. Wall off about 1,500 square feet, and hire a small team of digital advertisers versed in search engine optimization, social media marketing, and database management. To establish a reliable stream of revenue, fill the rest of the space with student housing. Merchandise and distribution should be outsources. Product on hand should be used as a giant advertising venue for the university brand. There should be no expectation that product sold at the USB location will ever turn a profit – because it won’t.
In 2015, I had the privilege of spending time with a UNI business alum who was (at the time, but no longer) a VP of Target. He told me that Target projected opening four new stores in 2016. Four! This from a company that regularly opened dozens of stores year after year. He pointed to his cell phone and said: “this is a Target store.”