I want to be careful in this space about calling for the staff of The Cavalier Daily to do too much. I’ve mused in the past on what a college newspaper should be. I also noted recently that The Cavalier Daily staff have been doing a good job keeping their eye on things aside from the Rolling Stone fallout. While the focus of The Cavalier Daily is rightly centered on the University I’d like to see some more coverage of things going on in the local area around the University, particularly the city of Charlottesville. Journalists elsewhere in Charlottesville already keep an eye on The Cavalier Daily for coverage. Speaking to the quality of some of the reporting, a reporter named Sean Tubbs who covers local government and infrastructure for Charlottesville Tomorrow recently pointed his twitter followers to a useful piece by Will Marshall on Charlottesville City Council discussions about moving the ABC store on West Main Street.
Part of the reason to hope for more coverage of local (not entirely specific to the University) issues is that the University continues to extend itself further into the city. With the completion of the new Children’s Hospital the University has more of a presence than ever on West Main Street. The city is working on redesigning and approving many construction projects along West Main including, potentially, apartment buildings or complexes designed to be marketed to University students. That is in addition to the Flats at West Village that opened last year. The University owns several parcels of land along West Main and will have a significant role in determining the future of that part of town. If students are going to move into the apartment buildings in the numbers developers and the city appear to hope, city policies and rules will also have a significant effect on how those students live. Coverage of how decisions are being made would be of great benefit to Cavalier Daily readers.
The Cavalier Daily is one of only a handful of local news outlets in the Charlottesville area. In many cases — University sports coverage for instance — The Cavalier Daily is the class of the field. With a bit more attention on issues a bit further from Grounds, I think The Cavalier Daily could do a better job for its readers connecting what’s happening at the University with what is going on in Charlottesville and the larger area and I think that would valuable.
The Cavalier Daily elected its new Managing Board and Junior Board over the weekend. The 126th Managing Board is also the first to be comprised entirely of women, marking another of those “it will be great when these things aren’t noteworthy any more” moments. Maybe it isn’t really noteworthy now, but it seems like it is still remarkable. Congratulations to the new Board and the new editors who were also selected for the various sections. As always, I am struck by the relative inexperience and quick turnover of the people putting out The Cavalier Daily. They learn on the fly without the benefit of an advisor or a school of journalism and they consistently do good work.
Christopher Broom is The Cavalier Daily's public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com, or on Twitter at @cdpubliceditor.
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