Editor's Note (12/15/09)

Story by Carson Vaughan 

| Published Dec 15, 2009

Seventy-five and rising. It’s 4 am, the inaugural issue of the DailyER Nebraskan is due in six hours, we’re working in the basement of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house and the thermostat keeps fucking rising.

Six irate staff members, two-dozen empty coffee mugs, one sporadically functional desktop Mac and a completely naked “Classifieds” section. The smell of burnt coffee, body odor and dry-erase markers loiters in the air and the pale fluorescent lights buzz overhead. The angst is palpable, the ideas are awful and everything, literally everything, sounds funny.

“Okay, okay. Here we go. Check this out,” Bryce says, his fatigued, sunken eyes opening a bit wider. “Missing: One Friendship Bracelet.’ And then add a smiley face—upside down.”

The DailyER Nebraskan was born nearly two years ago on Feb. 19, 2008—and that joke made the cut. Although we recognize it likely had few admirers and was purely the result of desperation, that classified advertisement is surrounded with fond memories for our founding members.

Few of us who survived that dreadfully amazing evening would have guessed our publication would still be around two years later. None of us would have agreed to repeat that night again—but all of us did, inexplicably, dozens of times over. And you are holding the result.

This issue marks my last issue as editor-in-chief of the DailyER Nebraskan. It’s been a hellish ride, void of sleep and brimming with frustration. It’s also been two of the best years of my life, and I have a staff of wholeheartedly dedicated individuals to thank for that. But the DailyER is too young to grow nostalgic, and I’m too kind to write you a self-serving, introspective pile of Noah Ballard bullshit. So, instead, let me tell you where we stand now and what you should ask from the DailyER Nebraskan under new leadership.

The DailyER has a tremendously difficult task ahead of itself. We’ve made huge strides in the past two years, but this paper is far from ideal. We need more copy editors. We run too many dick jokes. We need to publish more biting criticisms, more controversial ideas, more radical behavior. Our editorial staff is too male-dominated. We need to become more involved in both campus and community events. We need more consistency in our humor. Our articles need more relevance and more prevalence. We need to be louder, bolder and stronger. We need to print more material that wakes this campus.

The list continues, and if all goes as planned, the DailyER will always have an updated and detailed laundry list of new areas to advance. You should expect the new editor to work for these objectives.

Lastly, I’d like to personally thank senior staff writer Ben Plowman, who graduates this month and will no longer be working for us. Ben not only developed our new Web site from scratch, but was also instrumental in helping the DailyER Nebraskan develop its style. Ben does not write dick jokes…very often.

Happy holidays!

Respectfully-ER,

Carson Vaughan
Editor-In-Chief
DailyER Nebraskan