Welcome to the Carrboro Commons, Round Two.

By Jock Lauterer
Lecturer, JOMC 459,
Community Journalism Adviser,
the Carrboro Commons

We have the gall. The unmitigated gall.

Some of you must be wondering: Where did this Carrboro Commons come from? Who’s behind this thing? UNC students!? How can a bunch of mere college kids presume to have the journalistic skills to even attempt to cover Carrboro? Yes, we are full of spit and vinegar.

And here’s our story. I remember the moment of divine creation as clearly as if I’d been sitting in the audience watching a stage play, instead of being on the stage myself.

Monday, Sept. 25, 2006, Room 143 of Carroll Hall, UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It was toward the end of another class of “Community Journalism,” and the 14 students were packing up their books after having heard from a guest lecturer, Robert “Bubba” Dickson of Raeford, now retired (kinda, sorta) to Carrboro. Dickson had regaled my kids with “war stories” about his feisty but fun-loving weekly, the Hoke County News-Journal, a relentlessly local, kick-butt-and-take-names sort of independent weekly I value so highly - the sort of paper I used to co-own. Dickson had gotten my kids to brainstorm about what makes a great local newspaper, and the room was still humming with energy.

“How about a newspaper for Carrboro?” I heard myself blurt. Where did THAT come from? It was as if someone else had uttered the outrageous notion.Honestly, it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. Jaws dropped, eyes flew open. All 14 kids were staring at me incredulously.

Then “Bubba” broke the spell.”And I’ve got a press,” he announced calmly, looking them all right in the eyes.

I began laughing with delight, and the oxygen, thankfully, rushed back into the room, allowing us to breath again.

As class broke up I remember particularly the kids on the front row: Taylor Stanford, Carrie Crespo, Ashley Christian, Joe Collevecchio and Stephanie Novak, remaining in their seats, grinning, shaking their heads in wonder.

The next class period, by an “auspicious coincidence,” I’d scheduled guest lecturer Kirk Ross, former managing editor of the Independent Weekly. When I brought up our audacious vision - a newspaper for Carrboro - instead of laughing at us, Kirk challenged us to delve into the peculiar and unique nature of the community we proposed to cover.

By the following class period I had lost enough sleep over my zany idea to realize I had to divest myself of it. Walking into class, I said not a word but wrote on the blackboard: “NAME, STAFF, STORY ASSIGNMENTS.”Turning to my astonished students I said, “All right, if y’all want a newspaper for Carrboro, here’s what you gotta do. Give it a name, figure out who’s gonna be your leaders and come up with story ideas and assignments. If this paper is going to launch and succeed, it can’t be Jock’s paper; it’s gotta be your paper. So I’m leaving now, and y’all can do whatever you want for the rest of the period. But I expect I’ll hear from one of you before next class period about what y’all decided. Bye now.”

And with that, I walked out of the room (but not before I caught a glimpse of more dumbstruck looks).

Sure enough, that night I received a long e-mail from one of the students, Stephanie Novak, reading: “Hey Jock: Say Hello to the Crockpot! Ha, just kidding. We didn’t name it that. We decided, after quite a while, that the name will be the Carrboro Commons, which overruled the Carrborator, the Carrboro Connection, Carrboro Confidential and Carrboro Collage.”

And there followed a staff and story listing. The Commons would be led by co-managing editors Carrie Crespo and Ashley Christian, News Editor Joe Collevecchio, Feature Editor Taylor Stanford and A&E Editor Stephanie Novak. Writer Jack Carley gets the credit for naming the Commons, and kudos to photo/graphics student Elsa Hasenzahl for designing the e-zine’s logo for the home page.

When I realized the kids were serious about the Commons, I jettisoned the class schedule for the remainder of the semester, retooled the class into a newsroom and told the kids if we could put out a great online product, I’d be delighted. Frankly, I thought a print edition would be cool, but I also didn’t think we had the time or expertise to pull it off. Little did I realize how much I’d underestimated that group of students.

When, in early December, we were ready to launch the online version of the Carrboro Commons, I noticed that the editors were spending a lot of time in the computer lab. What were they doing? Weren’t we ready to launch? That’s when Joe, one of the more outspoken editors, told me with his characteristic grin, “Jock, we don’t care what you think. We’re doing a print edition.”

To make matters worse, they’d been in collusion with Dickson the whole time! My students had done a complete end run on the “ol’ perfesser.” And dang if they, and Bubba, weren’t as good as their word, cranking out 5,000 copies of the print version of the Carrboro Commons, which they delivered to popular spots around Carrboro even in the midst of their final exams. All this extra work they did not for the grade but for something else - that ephemeral stuff of a great classroom experience that, if I could bottle and sell, would make me a millionaire.

As it turns out I’m a wealthy man anyway, enriched by the enthusiasm of my amazing students. And that, folks, is why I’m pouring my heart and soul into the Carrboro Commons again this semester. For when teaching and learning become so organic, well, that’s as good as it gets.

This spring semester’s effort of the Carrboro Commons is ably led by co-editors Robert Matteson and Liz Thomas, along with Editorial Editor Summer Saadah, Photo Editor Tim Reese and Latino Beat Editor Christina Lopez.

And a special thanks to assistant professor Andy Bechtel and his advanced editing class for help producing our first edition of 2007.
Tell us what you think about the Commons. while keeping in mind, this is a lab newspaper and a growing experience for all of us.

Jock Lauterer teaches community journalism at the UNC School of Journalism where he can be reached at 962-6421 or jock@email.unc.edu