Serving as SG President and Editor of the Campus Newspaper
A Northwestern State University student shares his experiences holding these potentially conflicting positions
By Ivy Scattergood

Typically, a college newspaper serves as a watchdog of the Student Government by keeping students informed about campus issues and policies. However, if one person serves concurrently as both editor of the school paper and as the president of the Student Government, can unbiased reporting exist? Or will a slant develop, wherein readers only see what the SG president wants them to see? Northwestern State University graduate, Shawn Hornsby, completed a year of performing both these jobs in spring of 2000. The Louisiana school has a population of about 5,000, and The Current Sauce newspaper, has a weekly readership of about 3,500.

"From the beginning, while most of my peers and advisors worried about the possible conflict of interests, I focused on devoting enough time to each position," he says. Hornsby saw both opportunities as a fortunate happenstance and says he really doesn’t understand the possibility for conflict. He looked at the positions as "a chance to lead other students on campus… The fact that other people see a problem with it shows just how accustomed we are to people in leadership positions betraying us."

Fellow staff member Larry Collins worked with Hornsby at the newspaper and in SG as the president of the campus branch of the Society of Professional Journalists. He supports Hornsby’s view that the dual roles were conflict-free. "There’s a great responsibility involved in being a reporter of the news coupled with being a public figure that’s a part of the news," Collins says. "Shawn proved to his critics on a regular basis that there was a balanced medium when holding such diverse and somewhat conflicting positions. Any possibility of conflict was quashed by his admirable practice of stepping out of a story and allowing another writer to make decisions when he felt there was even the slightest conflict of interest."

The year was not without its pitfalls, however. Early in his presidential term, Hornsby rejected a campus group’s proposal to move one of the school’s voting booths to another facility. Some students wanted the booths to be in more than one place on campus. "I felt the circumstances had not changed (since the idea came up and was rejected the previous year) and vetoed the motion," he says. The next day, switching hats and serving as editor, Hornsby ran a story about it on page one and quoted representatives from both sides. "In the next issue of the paper, three letters to the editor were written. All three were directed at the way I handled the situation," Hornsby says. "One of the letters questioned the fact that I served in my dual roles. The writer (complained that) the person who controlled what went in the paper often was the subject, and that was too much authority." Hornsby says the fact that he printed the comments at all proves there was no abuse of power.

Collins says Hornsby’s ability to balance these two roles made him more effective in both positions. "Another president would run the risk of filtering the news given to the media. Shawn's comprehension of what was essential for both positions prompted him to be both the most media-savvy president and well-informed journalist at the same time." He says Hornsby made sure SG news was brought to the attention of his editorial staff and writers in a more timely way, and that he met with staff members individually to discuss the pros and cons of how each side should be presented when writing a story.

Although covering both sides of a story should be standard procedure for any newspaper editor, former associate professor of journalism and advisor to The Current Sauce, Tom Whitehead, says in this case, it was twice as hard for Hornsby to be objective and fair. One of Whitehead’s main concerns in the beginning of the tenure was time. "When he got done with one meeting, he was going to another. I was concerned his plate was going to be too full." In retrospect, Whitehead says Hornsby did a good job managing his time. The advisor’s other concern was the "paper’s traditional role as watchdog of the Student Government." Whitehead says he isn’t sure that second concern was allayed. "Shawn did a great job, but the coverage of SG became more of the SG president’s view," he says. "It’s not Shawn’s fault. He did allow dissenting opinion, through editorial letters and the like. However, it’s hard for a person to really turn that watchdog mirror on themselves and be unbiased."

Whitehead says although he doesn’t necessarily think one person serving both roles is the best thing for the newspaper or the Student Government, he wouldn’t try to stop another person from holding these two jobs in the future. "The system that selected Shawn for both positions was a democratic one," Whitehead says. "I have trouble saying we should corrupt democracy. The system was in place, and if the same thing happens again, I would support that system."

Hornsby says he would serve in both roles a second time, without reservations, primarily to demonstrate that there’s no inherent conflict between the two positions. "I am afraid that I would do it again because I’m so stubborn. The greatest challenge has not been the integrity of the positions but the devotion of time. SG didn’t receive the attention it would normally receive under someone else’s watch."

For more information, e-mail Sean Hornsby.

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