A legacy of leadership: The role of editor-in-chief over the years

The Miami Student has hosted a staggering number of student members, each doing their own part to get every issue out on time. This consists of writers, photographers, designers, section editors and then the editor-in-chief (EIC) at the very top; the captain steering the whole ship.

The EIC is responsible for overseeing almost everything that comes through The Student. If writing or taking photos is like having a job, then being the EIC is equivalent to four.

While The Student’s 200-year run might make the one-year tenure of an EIC seem small, their impact on the paper is immeasurable.

Susan MacDonald | 1973 - 1977

Sue MacDonald became editor-in-chief during her third year at Miami in 1976. Like many editors, MacDonald remembered a busy schedule for The Student.

She said the paper printed twice every week, with the editing staff meeting every Sunday and Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the Shriver Center to finalize the next day’s issue. The first hour would be spent typing every story out on yellow copy paper, and then the editorial board would talk over what stories are finished and where they needed to go on the page. Finally, the finished copy had to be taken to the Oxford Press to be laid out for printing.

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Miami didn’t allow students to have cars at the time, so MacDonald had to bike the copy up to the printer, located on Beech Street.

“I kind of feel like I edited The Miami Student and I went to college on the side,” she said.

MacDonald said one of the most memorable parts of working for The Student was the staff. Everyone in the newsroom shared a creative approach to what they reported on, due in some part to the variety of people working for the paper.

“We had people who were interested in writing about art, about music — some of them were musicians, some of them were art majors,” she said. “The cool thing was that we weren’t all journalism majors.”

One highlight of MacDonald’s tenure came from a night when the staff realized they didn’t have enough stories to print a full issue. After seeing that it would be coming out April 1, they decided to print an April Fools’ Day issue. The staff spent the whole night coming up with joke stories like Oxford expelling Miami from the city limits or that the“Football team eats The Miami Student sports reporter.” They even reversed the cover pages’ banner, so it read “Student Miami The.”

Jennifer Markiewicz Wagman | 1992 - 1996

Jennifer Markiewicz Wagman joined The Student during her first year at Miami in 1992. Her work began with a call from The Student asking her to write a sports story. Even though sports weren’t a special interest of hers, she said she was eager to do her best.

“I tried to just be quiet and learn,” she said, “which was really hard for me.”

Wagman was elected editor-in-chief at the end of her sophomore year in 1994, and three years later, she won a lawsuit against Miami University in the Ohio Supreme Court.

In the case of The Miami Student v. Miami University in 1995, Wagman and fellow writer Emily Hebert requested records from student disciplinary proceedings held before the University Disciplinary Board to develop a data set of crime on campus. The university refused to disclose the full documents, stating they were protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

In 1997, a full year after Wagman graduated, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wagman and Hebert, compelling the university to provide the records. Wagman said this experience represented a shift in her aspirations from strictly journalistic work to practicing law. After the lawsuit, she attended law school at The Catholic University of America, Columbus Law School.

Wagman said she’s always held Miami in high regard for being the kind of place where she could pursue and accomplish what she wanted to do.

“Where else could you have such a fertile ground for that kind of learning?” she said. “I was able to sue them, and go forward with it and learn.”

Chris Vinel | 2017 - 2021

Chris Vinel came to Miami in 2017 and got started with The Student’s sports section. He spent his time covering athletic events, breaking news about Miami’s big wins and profiling players, eventually working his way up to sports editor in his sophomore year.

However, a few days after Vinel was elected editor-in-chief in March of 2020, Miami announced that all in-person classes would go online.

Vinel said the first week of the pandemic was hectic, and he met with editors every day to talk through what The Student would look like going forward.

He said settling into the rhythm of the pandemic took some getting used to for everyone on staff. Reporting used to be completely in person, but now writers had to either talk to sources over the phone or figure out how to set up online meetings. Even when in-person classes resumed for the next school year, editors had to spend some nights at Vinel’s apartment to finish weekly production because the Armstrong Student Center was no longer open at all hours.

“It was just that time where we had to make it all work, and we did,” Vinel said.

He said, despite some of the bigger shifts, writing for the paper didn’t change that much. Stories were already written and edited online, and Zoom gave the staff another way to interview people. He said at the time, The Student began running more like a professional newsroom than a student publication.

“I’m not gonna say we slacked at our academics during that quarantine, but there was less of an emphasis on it,” Vinel said. “I was able to direct most of my energy toward The Student — kind of making sure everything worked out, making sure everyone was on the same page. ”

Not being able to print meant more stories could be immediately published online. Topics also shifted as The Student started reporting more updates to COVID-19, new quarantine regulations and even what summers in isolation looked like.

Vinel said that summer was one of the busiest for the newspaper.

Tim Carlin | 2018 - 2022

Tim Carlin became editor-in-chief right after Vinel in 2021. He said his time at the head of The Student was as beautiful as it was draining.

Carlin said part of what made his stint with the paper feel so chaotic was the number of events that divided United States culture throughout that time: the second half of President Donald Trump’s first administration, the impact of the pandemic, Joe Biden being elected and the widespread outrage over George Floyd’s death.

“I went to college at a time when I think the idea of divisiveness and how polarized our political climate was [was] still fairly new,” he said.

However, Carlin added that it was this same polarization that inspired him to embrace his position as a journalist. His later catalogue of stories included several letters from the editor and “From the editor’s desk” articles (more direct messages from him to readers), where he said he took the chance to write thoughtfully.

In his last letter, he said, “I hope they honor the power of the written word and execute every story with empathy and compassion.”

Now, four years later, Carlin still emphasizes a similar sentiment, with an added message.

“If I could go back and edit myself now, I would say ‘Honoring the power that comes with storytelling,’” Carlin said. “I just think that there is a responsibility with documenting the world around you and with having someone trust you enough to tell their story.”

bowsers2@miamioh.edu