"Students cope with gas shortage."
That headline summed up one of the big topics around the Valley three years ago, shortly after a gas supply line running from Tucson to Phoenix broke. The news sent drivers into a frenzy scrambling to get to the pumps because they (mistakenly) feared the area was about to run out of gasoline.
It also happened to be the headline on the first article I ever wrote for The State Press. I had only crawled down into this basement newsroom a week earlier, a scared sophomore and fresh transfer student from UA, with no clue as to what I was getting myself into.
Three years later, the gas line breakage is but a memory. I've also written better articles since that first effort, helped tell countless other stories and come to think of this asbestos-ridden, cockroach-infested basement as a second home.
You probably haven't seen our basement, but you have seen the stories we produce every day. There have been a lot of interesting ones over the course of the past three years - the party ordinance went into effect, ASU hosted a presidential debate, Phoenix hosted 200,000 protestors marching for immigration rights ... and the list goes on.
It's been a privilege to help tell these stories and others, both as a reporter and an editor. But this product is a team effort, and a lot of other people should be mentioned:
Thank you to everyone I've worked with at The State Press for the jokes, quotes, gossip, nicknames, pranks and, most importantly, friendships. Whether you've been my boss, colleague or employee, I've learned something valuable from each of you.
Thanks especially to Sara Thorson and Cameron Eickmeyer, the two editors in chief I worked under, who made the job look easier than it was. And thanks also to Ryan Kost, who will be taking the reins next year.
Thank you to the faculty at the Cronkite school, who have served as mentors and tolerated the excuse, "I couldn't get my homework done, I was at the paper late last night," more times than they can probably count. And thanks to our adviser, Kristin Gilger, who puts up with our antics on a daily basis (but still refuses to buy us a helicopter).
But most of all, thank you to our sources. It's your actions that give us the stories to tell. It's your quotes we're entrusted with every day as we type out the stories that people will discuss tomorrow. From the administrators to the campus characters, you're the ones who let us put out a newspaper.
A lot of those characters will probably change next semester. That's the funny thing about news. It doesn't stay the same for long. But those stories are being left in good hands - this basement and its inhabitants aren't going anywhere, even if a few bylines change.
As for me, it's finally time to climb out of this basement for the last time, shed the title of "student journalist," and try my hand at telling new stories that go beyond ASU.
-Amanda Keim
EiC 2005-2006
