The Missouri Miner: Editors-in-Chief: Elizabeth Trimble

Research Project: 100 years of
The Missouri Miner 1915-2015

Est'd. 1915, Fred Grotts, Founder

Elizabeth Trimble
EIC 1988-1989

RB: From when to when were you Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner? Who proceeded and followed you in that position? Share your memories of these individuals.

ET: I was Editor during the 1988-89 school year, August through May. Jim Harter was EIC before me. You don't want to know my opinion of him. Nikki Pagano was the EIC after me. She was well suited for the position. She had been the News Editor the year I was Managing Editor.

RB: What other positions did you hold on the Missouri Miner staff. How were elections held? How did you become involved with the newspaper?

ET: Prior to EIC, I was Managing Editor, Assistant News Editor and a News Staff Writer. As Managing Editor, it was my responsibility to make sure the paper was ready for publication every Monday. I was responsible for assigning the proper number of pages to advertising and each section of the paper: News, Sports, Editorials, etc. I also had to come up with "filler" material for any space not filled. This was my favorite position on the staff of the paper. As Assistant News Editor, I did was I was told by the News Editor. I also started a "Professor of the Week" column where I would pick a department and have the students vote for their favorite professor, then I would interview that professor for the paper. I always wanted to study journalism, but my parents wanted me to do something more worthwhile, so this seemed to be the best of both worlds. I could get a "worthwhile" degree and still get in some journalism!

Elections weren't held per se. Typically, it was the person most suited for the job who got the next position. I was the only one who wanted to be Managing Editor on the staff that year, so that's how I got the position. Managing Editors usually moved up to EIC the following year. I'm sure that has changed in the past 20 years!

RB: What were the biggest challenges you faced as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner?

ET: The biggest challenge I had as EIC was exercising the right of free speech. I also had a staff cartoonist who drew some suggestive cartoons, and I was pressured to let him go. Admittedly, he was a gifted artist, but when your pictures show women in very suggestive ways, it is demeaning to the female students.

RB: What were your greatest accomplishments as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner? What issues were most important to you?

ET: My greatest accomplishment as EIC was the fact that I actually managed to get through the year! LOL Actually, this was the year we started using computers right in the office and did our own typesetting. [Adobe] Pagemaker was the software we used.

RB: What "big" stories are most memorable to you and why?

ET: A group of students wanted to start a gay/lesbian club on campus and wanted to use the Miner as a way to advertise meetings. I received some threatening phone calls about that but felt that if that was what this group of students wanted, the Miner was there for ALL students.

RB: What effect did major national events (i.e. wars, assassinations, etc.) have on the Missouri Miner's reporting? How did you handle these events?

ET: [I] can't remember any [national events].

RB: How significant a role do you feel you and the Missouri Miner played in campus life during your tenure as Editor-in-Chief?

ET: I knew more of the administration than a lot of my fellow students. I was a part of the Chancellor's Student Leadership Group. We met monthly for lunch to discuss things going on around campus.

RB: How did your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner help prepare you for life after college? What lessons did you learn?

ET: I am very critical when it comes to reading other publications thanks to my tenure on the Miner staff. My husband hates to read the paper with me! LOL

RB: What was your staff like at the Miner?

ET: I had a great staff as EIC. Stef Dinwiddie was an awesome Business Manager, and Scott Yeager was wonderful with advertising, as was his girlfriend and now wife Maria.

RB: Who was the Missouri Miner's faculty advisor? What kind of faculty support/advice/instruction did you receive from professors at the university?

ET: [I] can't remember. I do remember I had to find one but I couldn't tell you who it was. 20 years and 3 kids do that to you.

RB: Where was the Missouri Miner's office? What equipment did you use to produce the newspaper every week? If you published at the Rolla Daily News (the local city paper), what was your relationship with Ed/Steve Sowers? If not, where did you publish the paper?

ET: The Miner office was in the Rolla Building, the original campus building, on the 3rd floor. The first 3 years I was on staff, we would bring everything to someplace on campus to have it typeset. As EIC, we were lucky to have the computer in the office and the ability to do our own work. I had no relationship with the Rolla Daily News staff. The paper was always brought to them for publication by the advertising editor.

RB: How would you describe your management style?

ET: I don't like to be under someone's control, so I tried to treat the staff with respect. As long as it wasn't illegal, and I had final say over things that were printed, they pretty much ran their "section" as they saw fit...

RB: Describe your relationship with staff/faculty/student leaders at MSM/UMR.

ET: I'm pretty sure no one knew exactly who I was [laughs] other than some faculty.

RB: Did any group (Fraternity, Administration, Student Council, etc.) have what you felt to be undue influence over decisions affecting the newspaper? If so, which groups had this influence and what decisions did they affect?.

ET: I don't feel any organization had any undue influence over the paper.

RB: Share your thoughts and feelings about your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner.

ET: I loved being on the staff of the Miner. Having been interested in journalism since I was a child, I felt this was a way to pull that into my life and still please my parents. Memories of climbing 3 flights of narrow stairs to the 3rd floor with no AC in August stay with me as well [laughs].

RB: Recent events on college campuses across the United States have led to a journalism student being tasered by police and a college newspaper editor facing possible termination for use of profanity in an editorial--all in the name of freedom of speech. The Missouri Miner staff has had several conflicts with administrators and the student government over what is printed in the paper and its overall quality, the latest of which threatened to lead to a lawsuit. Where do you draw the line between exercising freedom of the press and being a responsible journalist? Have your views on 1st Amendment issues changed since being EIC of the Missouri Miner, and if so how and why?

ET: Profanity has no place in responsible journalism. Surely a college student has a larger vocabulary than one peppered with 4-letter words. If you can't get your point across without profanity, you need to go back to middle school and brush up on larger words. Or purchase a thesaurus. My views on the First Amendment haven't changed all that much. I feel that there is a right to know, but there may have to be a line drawn somewhere. For example, I don't really care how often the President uses the bathroom, or if he's having his annual colonoscopy. But I would like to know if something was wrong with his colonoscopy so I could pray for his healing. It's a fine line.