Create a Student-Led Culture of Values
By Chris Pearcy, IHSPA At-Large Member
Staff recruitment, retention and productivity are just a few of the reasons why staff culture is one of the primary tasks an adviser should continually address.
“A strong and positive staff culture can really make or break a publication,” Kylee Langley, a collegiate journalist, said. “I have seen both sides, and it is very clear that when staff morale is high so is the publication. When having a positive staff culture, productivity is higher as deadlines are being met more frequently, communication is strong, and it’s a more enjoyable experience overall.”
It even extends to the professional world.
“I actually am going to college for organizational leadership, and a lot of it is about building a strong staff culture,” Purdue student Gretchen Prifogle, a former student journalist, said. “It’s the most important part about any business or club or anything because that is what motivates people to get to work.”
For most of us, this isn’t exactly breaking news. But, neither is it a simple thing to address. Coming up with fun, team-building activities or staff bonding moments on top of getting students to meet their deadlines can be difficult and time-consuming. I struggled mightily with being consistent with this in my second year of advising, being too hyper-focused on student completing their deadlines.
What was a happy, go-lucky, and hard-working class the previous year became overly stressful for all, including me.
“I can say from personal experience that a negative staff culture influences all functions of a publication negatively,” Leah Alder, a former student journalist, said. “Professionalism, communication, morale, and productivity all are compromised as a result of a negative staff culture.”
However, it did lead to a student-led discussion of our values the next semester. I left the room to let them discuss their thoughts without my interference. What kind of culture did they want, and how could they facilitate that? The students needed to decide for themselves. Communication was a major theme.
“I would stress the idea of open communication and building a level of trust within the staff is the most important thing, especially between newer staff and leadership positions,” Langley said. “Making it a priority to encourage communication between staff members and getting to know one another can go a long way."
We found that communication was fundamental to what we did and a major starting point for changing our culture.
“At the heart of journalism is communicating,” Alder said. “The most important thing to do when developing a staff culture is to make sure that all students are contributing to the culture through being heard and represented. A staff culture must reflect the values and attitudes of each individual staff member in order to have a positive impact on the publication.”
The students decided that team-building and fun were also vital. So, we created a staff culture director position the following year.
“I think it helped to have a staff culture director to plan activities for Fun Fridays,” Prifogle said. “It made that part of our staff a lot more consistent because we struggled to keep that part up. It was nice to have one person who was in charge of doing the planning and running of all the activities.”
Having a staff culture director shifted our staff culture back to the positive side. This student planned our team-building activities and staff hangouts/parties. However, they also ensured all students were signed up for our communication app, Band. They made sure everyone understood our communication policies, including when staff members should and should not be contacted. The staff culture director ran the mentor program for new staff members to help better integrate them.
“This role served as someone who dedicated and focused their time on ensuring that our staff morale was being prioritized and was able to help when that was lacking," Langley said. "Our staff culture director did a great job at making everyone feel included on staff, resolved issues, voiced concerns that the staff was seeing or having, and organized events for the staff.”
Developing a student-led culture creates more student investment in their own environment and helps instill your staff’s core values beyond meeting a deadline.
The staff culture director also helped ensure each student was recognized for their effort.
“Some of my favorite staff culture activities involved the kindness circle, in which each staff member could raise their hands and say something positive about a fellow staff member with/without relating to their work in the publication,” Alder said.
Plus, it may create some lasting memories.
“My favorite activity was making the slime,” Prifogle said. “It was so funny because a lot of people weren’t good at it. It was also fun going around and helping other people fix their slime or finish what they started. I really enjoyed the day because all of us were really into that activity.”
University Interscholastic League Resources
From the University of Texas at Austin, UIL offers a comprehensive collection of free journalism resources. From slides to handouts to pandemic-era video lessons, you are bound to discover something useful in the mix.
