EMCC student newspaper the Eagle Eye on campus

BANGOR – The Eagle Eye sees everything.

That’s the goal a small, dedicated group of students at Eastern Maine Community College has for the school’s beefed-up newspaper, the Eagle Eye.

“We’ve been getting really good feedback,” liberal studies major and newspaper co-editor Katie Oakes, 19, said in a recent interview. “There’s so many interesting people [at EMCC], we try to get a feature story at least every other issue. I’m amazed at how many things are going on on campus.”

The newspaper has enjoyed a recent makeover, and EMCC students are reaping the benefits.

Formerly just a short news flyer, the Eagle Eye changed focus in September 2004. It is now a four-page paper that incorporates feature stories, news stories, instructor interviews and opinionated editorials. All articles are written by students, who also edit, design, photocopy and staple the biweekly paper.

The hands-on adventure in journalism is a labor of love, the students say, and their reward is seeing the Eagle Eye get snapped up by members of the diverse EMCC student body – and getting real journalism experience.

“I love it,” Melanie Akeley, 19, said. “I like getting into what I want to be involved in for real life.”

The Millinocket native and liberal arts major is a reporter for the paper. She takes a journalism class and, like all student reporters for the Eagle Eye, receives class credit for articles she writes.

Akeley said that she has learned the most about journalism not from in-class lectures, but from her work with the paper.

“I’ve learned the most from going out and doing it,” she said.

That day, Akeley had interviewed some students from the EMCC culinary arts program who work for the Rangeley Hall Cafe. It was an experience in balanced journalism for her.

“I just interviewed the head of the Culinary Arts program,” she said. “I was just getting [the students’] views as opposed to the man who runs it.”

Carol Lewandowski, chairman of the EMCC English Department, said that the paper has helped to unite the students in the many different technologies on campus, and in the campus outreach centers in Ellsworth, Dover-Foxcroft, East Millinocket and Belfast. Copies are sent to all campus centers.

“We also had some good commentaries about the switch from the technical college to a community college,” she said.

As the campus has evolved, so has the paper. Lewandowski credits the nine students staffing the Eagle Eye with the changes.

“It is awesome,” she said of the revamped paper. “It has done a complete turnaround. We have news stories now. We have features. It’s something people are really reading.”

The student reporters and photographers, under the tutelage of journalism professor Ed Rice, have the leeway to focus on topics that interest them.

“We have several students who are really interested in doing more of the investigative reporting,” Lewandowski said. “And we have several other students who are more interested in the feature stories.”

Some of the more controversial topics touched on by students include student security and a story about the treatment of adjunct professors.

“Students are becoming more involved in how the campus works,” Lewandowski said.

Akeley, who plans to transfer to the University of Maine to major in journalism, said that she has enjoyed seeing her campus from the reporter’s perspective.

“I did a story at the beginning of the year at the new day care they have here,” she said. “I got to talk to the kids and take pictures of the kids. That was cool. I liked that.”

The Eagle Eye staff and their advisers have plans for the paper – they hope to have more pages, attract advertising and procure funding from the school.

Oakes said that the staff would love to have its own photocopier, preferably a color one, for the 300-450 copies of the Eagle Eye that are produced every press run.

After all, they say, the Eagle Eye uniquely serves a diverse campus.

“I think it’s a great way for the people on campus and off campus to get in touch with other technologies they don’t really know about, and learn more about their school as a whole,” Akeley said. “I think the paper is a good connector to people on campus.”