COLUMN: The clock strikes midnight

From Josh Callahan's, "A View from the Porch" The good news is that new people, with more energy and enthusiasm, are just getting started. I'm going to make like Michael Wachter and head back to writing and teaching, and leave the administration to someone else. While it is time to step aside, the most difficult aspect of being an editor is only being editor for one year. What plagues The Daily Pennsylvanian, like any Penn organization or team, is turnover. Just when everyone starts to get to know colleagues and sources, build relationships and learn more skills, it is time to leave the job. Yesterday, two nights after leaving my editor's chair, I ran into someone from an old Spanish class at a random social gathering. It came up that he played sprint football, something I never knew. We chatted about his season for a while, and I realized how few times any sort of similar conversation had occurred over the year. The scene reminded me that there is far too little dialogue between athletes, coaches, writers and editors around here. It may be inevitable given the time constraints everyone operates under, but it would certainly improve our product and cut down on inaccuracies. We didn't ask for enough feedback, and it is usually only in the most extreme cases when complaints or compliments are volunteered from 33rd Street. To that end, I owe women's basketball coach Julie Soriero a debt of thanks. She was the coach who most consistently came to me with comments, whether it be a headline she thought inaccurate or a feature she found well written. Increased interaction does not include the goal of placating the Athletic Department and getting them to love us. What it will do, however, is end the numerous assumptions made both inside 4015 Walnut and inside Weightman Hall. Misspellings, misquotes and incorrect captions decimate the relationships we have with teams, and that's fair. But the misunderstandings and misinformation that circulate 33rd Street regarding what and why we write also prove costly, and those are things we have no way of solving unless we receive questions and comments. Maybe this fractured relationship is a byproduct of the University as a whole. The professional nature of students on campus causes too few people to stop and ask why or stick around long enough to hear the answer. The hardest part of this communication breakdown is the faces on both sides are constantly changing. To the coaches who have stopped talking to us or show displeasure in it: stop setting a bad example and start telling us how we can open the lines of communication. To the new editors: do not just sit in your chairs, the way I too often did. Relationships are paramount to your success, but they are not a birthright. They must be built. To the athletes: as little as we understand the pressures you are under, remember that we are under a different but no less important set of demands. We are not meant to be adversaries. To the writers: sportswriting is as much about people as it is about results. Get to know the people, don't just settle for the stat sheet. So maybe I end looking like a hypocrite -- spewing advice I was too busy to act on myself. It's worth it, however, if we can keep pushing to produce a better paper.