A learning laboratory

University of Houston’s student-run newspaper, The Cougar, a place to learn, make mistakes, gain experience in journalism industry.

Music: Guitalele’s Happy Place (ft. Kara Square (mindmapthat)) by Stefan Kartenberg

Every Wednesday morning, stacks of The Cougar, an eight-paged student-run newspaper, are plopped onto stands positioned around the University of Houston campus.

This is a tradition that goes back nearly 85 years.

As the oldest student organization on campus, The Cougar, has stood the test of time. The paper dates to UH’s junior college days and was first published in the Spring of 1928.

The Cougar is the reason why UH’s mascot is a cougar, and is partly responsible for naming Shasta through the “Name the Mascot” competition that was run in the paper.

With its history on campus, The Cougar has been firmly cemented as a part of the university’s culture, but it primarily serves as a learning laboratory for its staff members. These aspiring journalists gain experience in a professional setting and create a product they can take with them after graduation.

“I think it’s a great place for students to get practical knowledge of journalism,” said senior journalism major Ian Everett who is the feature editor for The Cougar. “Often times, places want you to have experience or have internships, or something under your belt. A lot of journalism places will want you to have clips, which are writing samples, and this is a great place to get that.”

For many on the staff, it is the first time they are working in newsroom setting, which allows them to learn firsthand how the industry works.

“This is my first real job, especially in something that I want to do,” said sophomore English major Mason Vasquez, who is the staff’s copy chief. “Really, it kind of teaches you to work with people and together create something that you’re all working towards, and that’s a rather unique experience.”

Freshman journalism major and senior news writer Sydney Rose interviews an Honors College student for an article. Rose is one of two senior news writers on The Cougar’s staff [left]. Senior political science major Trevor Nolley photographs on the TDECU stadium just before the UH versus Memphis football game Nov. 16. Nolley is the photography editor on The Cougar and manages the team of photographers who shoot sporting events and other on goings all over campus [center]. Junior journalism major Avery Duncan attends the Monday morning press conference with head football coach Dana Holgorsen along with other local journalists. Duncan is new to the sports staff this fall and primarily writes analytical stories about football [right].

Sophomore journalism major Jhair Romero designs the sports pages for The Cougar’s final print edition of the semester. Romero is the sports editor on the staff and heads a team of about 12 sports writers who cover all UH sporting events and other sports related topics [left]. The Tuesday-night draft of The Cougar laid out on the table for final edits before being sent to the printers. The Cougar recently celebrated it’s 85th anniversary, and while it has changed over the years, it remains a place for students to gain practical journalism experience [right]

Senior English major Morgan Horst looks over The Cougar’s final daft for the last print of the Fall 2019 semester. As the managing editor, Horst oversees the day-to-day operations of the staff and is second in command to the editor in chief [left]. Senior marketing major Jiselle Santos joins the rest of the editorial board around the conference table to get one final look at the paper before it is sent to print. Santos is the creative director for The Cougar and is in charge of ensuring the paper has a cohesive layout and designs many of the graphics used in the publication [right].

The student-led staff writes, edits, photographs and designs all the content in the publication. They are also responsible for ensuring that what they publish is correct and free of errors.

This isn’t always the reality for The Cougar, but the paper serves as a place for students to learn from their mistakes.

“I think The Cougar is great to help them learn that process,” said Houston Chronicle news editor Charlie Crixell. “I do think, as we all know, there are mistakes made. Sometimes they’re just learning process kind of mistakes. Sometimes they go beyond that where it’s a big typo, in a big headline on the front page. You can’t let that happen, but you also can learn if it does happen, so it doesn’t happen again.”

Crixell, who also teaches journalism classes at UH as an adjunct professor, has seen many of the students that filter into The Cougar’s staff sitting in his classrooms.

“I like to bring my former students, the ones who worked at The Cougar particularly, because it’s so similar what they’re doing there to what we do here,” Crixell said. “To keep all of this going after I’m gone and all the rest of us are gone, it’s going to be on them.”

Music: Arc de Triomphe (ft. Kara Square (mindmapthat)) by Stefan Kartenberg

Although some view The Cougar as a good way to gain experience for the journalism industry, others are not as impressed with their time on the staff.

Senior digital media major Matthew Barrett was a photographer for The Cougar during his freshman year in 2015 but didn’t stay with the staff beyond that semester.

“There was limitations,” Barrett said. “They could only shoot on campus, and then I didn’t like the idea that a lot of things was basically off of Google Sheets. I had never actually met anybody else that was working there beside the person that interviewed me.”

After his time with The Cougar, Barrett went on to be published in several other local publications, he shot sporting events like boxing and worked paid photography jobs like a fashion shoot.

Although he didn’t return to The Cougar, Barrett’s semester on the staff was his first bit of experience, and he believes it has helped him with his current endeavors.

“That’s where I started — the first thing I found when I got here,” Barrett said. “I got the opportunity to shoot football, baseball, whatever and then you find out what you like and stick with it. So, it definitely plays a role.”

An aspiring journalist and assistant news editor of The Cougar, senior journalism major Autumn Rendall spends about 12 hours a week in The Cougars’ office. She works with other editorial staff members, edits staff writers’ stories and helps run the news section.

With a publication like The Cougar, students, like Rendall, are immersed in the inner workings of a newsroom while saving space for mistakes and providing opportunities for learning, which breeds a more adept group of future journalists.

“I feel like It’s given me a real variety of practical knowledge,” Rendall said. “Not only knowing how to generate stories and brainstorm ideas, but also how to help other writers form their own talents, how to edit stories and look for things like grammar or content. I feel like it’s given me the real-world experience that I need when, in the future, I will be working for a daily news organization of some kind.”