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Death of the Ezine - Abolishment of Creativity

Dionne Verba
The Commuter

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing you a letter in response to an issue here at our school, Linn-Benton Community College.

For the past three years, our school has had an annual publication designed to be viewed online, called an “E-Zine”. It is specifically focused around the submissions from the college and the college’s community. Individuals can submit any of their artistic works, whether it be writing in the form of fiction, memoir, poetry or prose; photography, music, paintings and drawings, and any other form of art that meets the guidelines for submission. It can be bought online in a hardcover, however, this is a publication that is non-profit, and designed by college students.

The design process is taught by my mentor, a wonderful woman by the name of Natalie Daley. Each year, Natalie offers two separate classes in the form of Writing 246 and Writing 247. The first class, Writing 247, is the selection process: works are taken, painstakingly reviewed several times, discussed, and chosen for the E-Zine. The second class, Writing 246, is the design process: students are taught how to use a publication program called “InDesign” by the instructor and educated in ways that make for an intelligent and beautiful creation. After learning the process of design, students then utilize what they’ve learned to the selected submissions, and create amazing layouts, backgrounds and put any text in a form that is fun to read, as well as pleasing to the eye.

Both classes involve daily readings and assessment reviews of popular publications such as “The New Yorker” and practice skills in editing and designing. Writing 246 works with the Graphic Design students at Linn-Benton, and it is the most vital of the two classes; it has been nicknamed “Graphic Design for Writers”. It teaches students much-needed and valuable skills in regards to a future in design and publication.

Each year the publication is open to students to register and apply their skills. Generally, not many people apply, and I fear this is due to difficulties in advertising for the classes themselves. However, the “editors” of this E-Zine-whether from previous years or not-becomes a close, tight-knit group of people that work extremely hard together to accomplish the publication.

I had the worthwhile opportunity to be a part of this magazine during my two years at Linn-Benton Community college, and it has been a very positive, rewarding experience. Because of the amount of fun I had working on it, and how much of an accomplishment it turned out to be, I wanted to help design it once more. This most recent year, even though I had satisfied all the requirements necessary for my degree, and this class would not be of academic benefit to me, I volunteered and took the classes regardless. Due to my experience with the publication before, I was given the position of teacher’s aid under Natalie Daley.

So it was of a very significant shock and great sadness to me to learn that halfway through the process of putting together our school’s E-Zine, it was going to be cancelled.

Apparently, due to recent economical difficulties, the school passed a quiet requirement that all classes needed a 75% student minimum in order to be considered a class, and would not continue otherwise. Because of the “newness” of the E-Zine, and the lack of knowledge as well as widespread recognition of what it was that we accomplished in the classes, apparently there was no way we could achieve that many students. We were the first, among many other creative-based programs (such as photography and the Valley Writers program), that were cut.

I am writing this letter to you for several reasons: first, to make you aware of the situation from a perspective of someone who was directly and wholeheartedly involved. Second, to assert that we were not even given a chance. There was no deadline given to recruit more students, there was no opportunity whatsoever to publicize this program, or to even say “Hey! This publication that everyone is a part of will be null and void if we don’t do something!”

I am defending this point because we were unable to do anything to save it. Another important reality that needs to be recognized is the fact that we were halfway through with the development of this year’s E-Zine, The Piñata of Dreams. Meaning that the effort we put into every piece that was read through and chosen to be included had been for nothing, and would mean nothing-for neither the students who did the reviewing, nor the students who submitted work.

The E-Zine was an ingenious publication that required a lot of hard work and creativity from many. It was an outlet not only for those who had the privilege of being published in it, but for those who worked for it. I was attached to it as an interruption, and as a pause from the monotony of certain aspects of school. My education is a very worthwhile endeavor, but if you cannot allow individuals to be creative in a system that can be so harshly demanding, then is the person that is produced by this system nothing more than a talking head? Such a person would be scholarly in ways that they would not be otherwise, but without a chance at creativity, individuals lose a chance at being whole.

As a college student, I call upon everyone to stand up for what they believe in. Stand up for what is right, not for what costs money. Lastly, please consider any resources available to prevent any more creative programs from being destroyed. I may be an idealist, but I am intelligent enough to know removing creativity from individuals is a very unfair and detrimental phenomenon.

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,

Dionne Verba

Comment

Welcome to the LBCC way!
Overmanaged, no clear direction, reliance upon OSU bound students as cash cows….loss of vocational base…way too many bricks and mortar in a clicks and mortar world…overpaid administration…still teaching for jobs that no longer exist…and the fish rots from the head down. Stand up and demand more from LBCC…insist that LBCC restructure with a clear strategic plan to meet the new job markets of the future (wind, solar)…not much demand these days for business management or marketing graduates….yet over a million per year instructional program expenditures to support programs in business management and marketing alone….wake up LBCC.

— Jamison Lee · Apr 8, 12:18 PM · #

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