Rival schools “come together” for joint issue

As a staff reporter, I knew about the joint issue between The Gramblinite and The Southern Digest but didn’t have the pleasure of working with the project for one reason or another, but this year, Fall 2007 as editor in chief, it was already predestined to be my year.
The time had come to get the ball rolling for this special issue but then, the system glitched. Due to circumstances beyond the Gramblinites’ control, our rivalry counterparts were not able to make their annual trip down to The Bluff.
From what I have heard, the Gramblinites would come to Southern for approximately two days and work tirelessly brainstorming story ideas, writing to bring those stories to fruition, taking pictures that adequately supported the stories, and the list went on.
Needless to say, I was terribly disappointed to hear that such a situation had befallen upon the delegates of The Gramblinite, but we’ve all heard the saying – when life deals you lemons, you make lemonade.
With that said, the Gramblinites did at home what they would have done here on the blue and gold soil, and the Southerners did their norm – which is whatever it takes to produce The Digest twice a week.
During our separation, we kept the phone and computer lines working overtime. When one email provider – yahoo, would not hold the files being sent from Grambling to Southern, Grambling divided up the files and used an alternate provider – Gmail. That little situation brought a song to mind – an oldie but goodie, “Ain’t no stopping us now, we’re on the move.”
When the download of the files were complete, and I was able to see the product of DeEric Henry, the editor in chief of The Gramblinite, and his staff’s hard labor, I got excited; everything looked wonderful. Now I am anticipate seeing the completed package in the newsstand.
Next year, Digest staff members will travel north to collaborate with the Gramblinites in order to do it all over again – produce the annual joint Bayou Classic issue between the two historically black colleges.
Inspite of issues that arose preventing the Gramblinites arrival to The Yard, Henry still plans to make a trip down south to Southern this semester, which I hope he is able to see through. I would be honored to meet him face to face, the person I have enjoyed working with throughout this joint venture.
It is a wonderful thing that the rivalry between us, due to our institution choice of higher learning, can yield such a camaraderie between the two newspaper staffs.