Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, kept a sign on his Oval Office desk throughout the duration of his presidency. The sign bore the phrase “The buck stops here.”
The sign refers to the problem of “passing the buck,” more commonly known as handing responsibility to someone else and blaming those other entities for what goes wrong. Truman kept it on his desk to signify that it is the president of the United States who has to accept ultimate responsibility for every decision made and every policy implemented – that no one deserves the blame besides him.
My high school history and government teacher introduced our class to the phrase in 11th grade. He thought it exemplified the issue of dodging accountability that pervades both politics and society in general both then and today.
I largely forgot about the phrase until this year, the year I spent being editor-in-chief of this publication, the year I held that “buck” for this organization.
I can’t speak for Truman, but I know that I never realized just how draining holding that buck would be.
Like many editors-in-chief who preceded me, I began this volume wildly idealistic. Volume 91 was going to be different. We would get every fact correct, every sentence grammatically immaculate, have a team of consistent, talented beat writers covering every aspect and event at the University and we would form effective relationships with every single club, administrator and faculty member on campus.
The Ram would earn the respect of the community, as a publication that was articulate, fair, accurate, controversial and esteemed. Because of this, I had no initial apprehension about being the one ultimately responsible for what we printed each week.
Things turned out slightly different than I anticipated. I learned that being the journal of record (aka a public relations arm for the University) and a student advocate (a forum for many unsubstantiated student complaints) is excruciatingly difficult and that neither the University nor the students are ever truly satisfied. Even more than that, I learned that the overall operation of producing a publication is actually exactly what Truman was talking about; it epitomizes the concept of passing the buck.
Each week, I watched our writers blame the administrators for not getting back to them in time, the editors blame the writers for not coming through with the story, the copy team blame the section editors for not making corrections to the articles and the section editors blame the copy team for being so critical without willing to work with the writers or ever write themselves. On an even larger scale, I watched the administration and faculty blame The Ram for printing incorrect facts and the students at Fordham blame us for being the mouthpiece of the administration.
It was a year filled with lots of blame and lots of passing the buck. Where did the buck stop? The buck stopped here, with me, and I have to admit the burden was definitely difficult to bear.
The Ram’s main problem is accountability, like my 11th grade teacher suggested, a problem every single organization professional or amateur faces in some capacity. Unfortunately, our accountability mistakes are printed 10,000 times and sent across three campuses and across the country to alumni every week.
While the criticism is sometimes trivial and sometimes justifiable, I ultimately realized that I would be a hypocrite not to take the criticism with stride. After all, the fundamental role of newspapers and media is to hold everyone accountable, to dispel corruption and incompetence by always questioning decisions and demanding answers. Why should we hold ourselves to any less of a standard than we hold others? Why should our operations and output not be questioned and dissected the way we question and analyze all operations and decisions of the University?
In the end, being the one ultimately responsible every week was a demanding but rewarding experience. Very few students will ever get the satisfaction of knowing that they had a direct part in documenting the history of this university. Long after the students and faculty who complain about The Ram are gone, our Volume 91 editions dedicated to Cardinal Dulles, U2’s “Good Morning America” performance and coverage of the Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean speeches will still be here, a part of the University’s official and permanent historical record.
For one year, my staff and I had a direct hand in shaping the agenda and outlining our concerns about the University, informing the community about its accomplishments and tribulations and vocalizing what needs to be changed to make this one of the premier universities in the country.
It’s a unique satisfaction that only our staff and the staffs who preceded us get to feel. We unfortunately also got to experience some less positive feelings, like the grueling exhaustion of having thousands upon thousands of words in front of us every Tuesday night, having our eyes start to burn as Tuesday nights turned into Wednesday morning, the depressing feeling of having your friends text you inebriated from tri-bar while you are inebriated from overtiredness, the exasperation of computer networks and layout programs freezing mid production night and the humiliation of walking out of our McGinley Center B-52 dungeon as the rest of the world is walking in. We can’t forget the most horrible feeling of all – waking up Wednesday to find mistakes on the front page, entire sections missing that the printer forgot to print and an inbox full of complaints about the articles ran.
No matter what your opinion of the publication, the staff deserves respect from the Fordham community for the physical, academic and social sacrifices they make as editors.
To my bickering children editors Stephen and Caroline, you are the most technological- and business -savvy kids a mom could ask for. To Stephen and Abby for stepping into positions that you did not sign up for, for bearing the brunt of others failed commitments but doing it enthusiastically and without question. I don’t know what I would have done without you two.
To “Muckracker” Rob and Mark (the sections that hold the paper together- literally), for holding the entire university and the athletics program to a higher standard. You guys taught me the true importance of journalism, that getting people talking at this school is not a necessary bad thing. You guys consistently went above and beyond what was expected of you.
To Nick, Natalie, Raquel, Ashley and Emily for your patience with writers, the hours of sleep you’ll never get back and the years of dedication.
To Kelly, Pat, Delaney, Mike, Matt and Danny for doing any and everything asked of you this year.
To my copy team Claire, Ryan, Sean, Celeste, Melissa, Ann, Hussein, Andrew, Tom for locating every single “that’s what she said” submitted to The Ram, for hot and cold drink excursions, for providing Tuesday night comic relief and for fixing every one of Chad’s coordinating conjunctions.
To Jen, Meredith, Will and Jim, for being the source of my emotional sanity this volume. I’ve learned so much from all of you and missed you a lot this volume. McGinley B-52 had a noticeably different feeling without you all here.
To our advisor Beth Knobel, for being there for us whenever we needed but also allowing us to grow and learn as editors without micromanaging our decisions. We all only hope to have as accomplished media careers as you.
To the faculty and administrators who helped us and rooted for us.
Finally to roommates, friends and family who have been there for me when I needed it the most. From moving Ram furniture (Lynne), to offering our apartment for meetings (Frosty, Sarah, Molly, Brooke), from talking me through Ram emotional breakdowns (Figo, Phil, Nick, Max), to being quoted even without wanting to be (Ian, Alex), and just for dealing with me in general (Mom, Dad, Jason, Brandon, AB, Melissa), I could have not gotten through this without all of you.
Overall, we had a lot going against us this volume, a significant commitment problem and lack of interested articulate writers. Even despite these obstacles, I am proud of the critical tone we have set of the University. To reach its fullest potential, The Ram needs to be critical of this University, its decisions and its students. It needs to demand accountability, something the University current lacks. Fordham is all too guilty of passing that buck and avoiding responsibility.
I am confident that Mark and the staff of Volume 92 will continue this path we have paved and finish the projects we’ve started in Volume 91, particularly advancing the new Web site even further and improving the overall layout and article quality.
This is has been the best and worst experience of my life, but in the end it was worth it.
To Volume 92 – good luck. I am passing the buck to you.
The buck truly stops here.
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