The Freedom to Learn

In my time as editor of The Miami Student, I worked hard and took my job seriously. My team and I made a lot of good calls, often in the early-morning hours from the basement of a Western campus building as we scrambled to hit deadlines, but I also made some bad decisions, some of which stay with me all these years later. Certainly, we published a few things that shouldn’t have been.

A media outlet making a mistake probably won’t surprise anyone who’s ever worked on a student publication or followed the news closely. Media is created by people, and people get things wrong.

In addition, students are, by definition, learners. What makes the difference for them – as it did for me – is whether an environment allows room to recognize their mistakes, talk about them honestly and grow. Ideally, in an academic setting, that kind of learning is not just allowed but expected. It’s quite literally why students are there.

I’m concerned that campuses don’t always operate that way today. I’ve read many stories about United States universities implementing strict speech codes and punishing students or faculty for speech that is protected by the First Amendment. Campus culture today can allow heckling to silence a speaker, social pressure to conform to a viewpoint and intolerance of dissenting views. Administrations often seem to prioritize avoiding controversy and protecting their brands over defending themselves as a place to learn and experiment with ideas.

But how can students learn from their mistakes if they aren’t allowed to make any?

I was fortunate at Miami to have journalism professors, including Hugh Morgan, Joe Fendley and Dennis Walsh, who gave me the gentle instruction and space to break out of my limited life experience. They didn’t shield me from consequences, but they did take the time to sit down with me and my editorial team to talk through difficult decisions and share how their own thoughts had evolved on the polarizing issues of that time.

Those conversations allowed my education at Miami to go far beyond textbooks and lectures (valuable as my history and English literature majors were). I wasn’t removed from my position or frozen out socially for mistakes I made as editor. Instead, I was allowed to learn by getting things wrong — hearing perspectives I hadn’t considered and continuing to move forward with more context than I had before. This instilled in me a desire to learn more and be better.

I came to Miami with a strong belief in the power of journalism to improve people’s lives. The space I was given to learn, question and adjust helped turn that belief into a career, including reporter and editor roles at The Associated Press and the Cincinnati Enquirer and eventually supporting journalists and our other employees at the E.W. Scripps Company. That path wasn’t guaranteed. It depended on my being allowed to make mistakes without being defined by them.

Two hundred years into its history, The Miami Student remains an important source of information for its community and a laboratory for student journalists. Just as importantly, it can still be a place where students figure out who they are, what they believe and how they want to engage with the world. I hope that spirit remains strong at Miami and at all learning institutions across our country.

Looking back now, I have empathy for my 21-year-old self, trying to make sense of a big and complicated world. I’m grateful that The Miami Student and the community at Miami University gave me room to improve my editorial process, to better understand the experiences of others and to contribute to our society in meaningful ways.

Carolyn Pione Micheli served as editor-in-chief during the 1990-91 school year. She currently serves as the chief communications and investor relations officer at The E.W. Scripps Co.