Apollos returns | News, Sports, Jobs – The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Behind the information desk at the Joan Weill Adirondack Library in room 109, a former storage room, the Apollos staff can be found sitting on beanbag chairs, their noses buried in laptops, as they work on putting out the next edition of the student-run newspaper.

A group of six current students — all juniors — restarted the student paper under the guidance of alumni and faculty advisors earlier in the spring semester, filling a gap in student-led news at the college that’s existed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at a time when there’s a lot to talk about on campus.

News Editors Kate Hemsley and Keeley Jock and Opinion Editor Charlie Hayden say they want the online publication to be a resource for information and discussion as they learn the ropes of journalism.

Faculty advisor to the paper and sociology professor Joe Henderson said he’s excited to see young people invested in keeping their community up-to-date and shining a light on the issues of today.

From left, Apollos co-News Editor Keeley Jock, Opinion Editor Charlie Hayden and co-News Editor Kate Hemsley pose in the office of the recently restarted Apollos student paper at Paul Smith’s College.
(Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

They also restarted a podcast called the Bobcast with a focus on social issues. The new season of the podcast has three episodes so far.

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Getting into business

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Though the college has communication classes, it does not have a journalism program. The staff is mostly environmental science majors, but the Apollos staff said many students there have writing talents. Hemsley has a published scientific paper. Jock has mostly done personal writing. They are in “new territory,” Hayden said.

“It’s a learning experience for everybody,” Henderson said.

For them, it is not so much about furthering a journalism career. It’s about providing a service to the community they are living in while they are part of it.

Hemsley said she is looking to provide the sort of resources she wishes she had as a freshman.

“Over the time that I’ve been at Paul Smith’s College I’ve seen a lot of discourse on different topics and not a lot of great ways to have that discourse,” Hemsley said.

She wanted a more productive way to move forward. Hemsley said she would make a bit of a controversial statement.

“When you get to Paul Smith’s College and you learn a bit about how things go here, you play the game and decide who you’re going to trust and who you’re not going to trust,” Hemsley said. “Joe Henderson is one to trust.”

None of the Apollos staff were students when the Apollos was around before. The student paper was one of the things lost during the pandemic. Its last post is dated March 14, 2020, nine days before the campus closed. In the chaos, Henderson said the urge to keep the Apollos going was lost.

But in the three years since, there has been a lot going on around campus: five different interim or full-time presidents, presidential resignations, student walk-outs and a pending affiliation with an educational nonprofit, plus countless smaller stories that might’ve gone untold.

Henderson remembers the Apollos.

The idea to restart the Apollos began in October 2021 during the student walk-out and protests. He said there wasn’t a platform to talk about what was going on on campus and he saw misinformation spreading. He kept running into coworkers in the hallways and realized they were all saying the same thing — “we really need the Apollos right now.”

Henderson invited students to a meeting last March to pitch the idea.

What they came up with is a blend of a school newspaper and literary magazine.

“Ultimately, for me, it’s about democracy,” Henderson said.

They poured hours into building a new website, organizing the crew.

“Lots of emails,” Hayden said.

It took a lot of background work to get it started, but they said the “hard part” is over. Now, they are focused on giving the paper a strong foundation.

Hayden said he was heavily involved in the walkout and the subsequent attempt at forming a student union. That unionization attempt did not work — the campus was too small and not enough people were invested in it, he said. But he still saw a need for students to have a voice.

His professor, Glenn McClure, suggested he join the new Apollos staff.

Apollos staff said Henderson guides them but leaves them enough space for it to be run for students, by students.

PSC Health Services Director Christine Brennan previously worked for Bloomberg News on Capitol Hill, so she’s been giving the students crash courses on libel law and news ethics.

“Christine Brennan will teach you about the differences between on the record, off the record and on background, and she will also treat you for kidney stones,” Hemsley said.

Henderson said he’s proud of the team and he encourages them to go out and ask tough questions of the people in charge. That’s a benefit of a small campus, he said — they have easy access to the leaders.

Hayden said he never thought he would be having a civil discussion with the college president about an incidence of racism on campus. One of the Apollos’ first interviews was with interim President Dan Kelting, shortly after an incident of racism was reported on campus and right before the paper’s first edition.

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Bridging a gap

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Apollos staff said there’s a lot going on on campus and not a lot of communication from the college about it. Hayden said people are confused about the pending Fedcap affiliation, and they want to keep their peers updated on what it means for their college.

“We’ve seen what happens when there’s not a lot of communication on campus,” Jock said. “Rumors happen really quickly and they spread like wildfire.”

Hemsley’s first article, she said, showed her how reporting can bridge information gaps.

The college’s water has been tinted brown at intervals in the past year. They had all heard speculation that it was sewage water or lake water.

“People have ideas because they have a lack of information. When they don’t know what’s going on they’re going to fill in the gaps themselves,” Hemsley said.

This is reasonable, she said.

“It’s difficult and scary to live in a place where you think that your water is not clean,” she said.

So she went out an interviewed the college facilities operations manager Stephen Carrick and got the facts. She found that the water coloration came from iron flaking stemming from a disturbance event last spring, which she was told doesn’t pose a health risk and is regulated by the state departments of Health and Environmental Conservation.

“To be able to bridge a communication gap … was really important for me,” Hemsley said.

In the process, she learned a lot of the ins and outs of the water system.

Henderson said when he spoke to a class of his about water quality, Hemsley excitedly spoke up and told them about the reporting she did and what she learned about how the campus’ waterworks work.

“This would have never happened had we not had this as a platform for people to talk about it,” Henderson said.

Jock designed the logo, a raven with the sun rising behind it, representing the mythical messenger of the Greek sun god Apollo. Jock said she did not see herself doing this a year ago.

“I did not think I was going to be doing many of the things that I am doing now on campus,” Jock said.

It is a nervous but exciting endeavor, she said, speaking with important people and bringing student concerns to them. It’s also important work to prepare for a career in which she hopes to advocate for regulations and policies.

“I think it’s really important in the field that I’m in to be able to communicate with people,” Jock said.

Jock said it has been a great team experience. Even when they aren’t meeting for the Apollos, they hang out in the paper’s office together to work on geographic information systems projects.

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Apollos’ future

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The Apollos has posted one issue so far. The next goes up on April 7. The staff plans to cover breaking news as it comes while keeping a cycle of news and sports articles being posted every Friday.

The website has seen 695 individual viewers from 10 countries, Hayden said, which is around exactly what the student population is currently. He said they were all excited to see their fellow student, Dolcie Tanguay, a biathlete on the college team, reading their first edition from a competition in Kazakhstan.

Apollos staff said the response from the campus has been good so far. Kelting has been supportive, they said, and Hemsley said professor Curt Stager shouted his excitement for the paper’s return from his car while she was walking to class one day.

Henderson said this is good for alumni to keep in touch with their alma mater, too.

Staff said they’re proud of what they’ve accomplished and are looking for more people on campus to become contributors to the Apollos. Hayden said he doesn’t want the opinions section to just be his “personal blog.”

The editors work with writers, look at interview questions, editing stories and confirming their research. Jock said they work by the code of “trust but validate.” The paper has a stated set of editorial standards for opinion pieces, too.

They said it’s also a platform to celebrate arts, sports and academic accomplishments; as well as unique perspectives and expression.

“Living in a free society also involves more than just straight news reporting,” Henderson wrote on the Apollos webpage. “It also requires free expression via humor, satire and other forms of artistic expression. Apollos ‘Paul’ Smith himself was well known for his ability to tell stories.”

Hayden published an opinion article on a niche topic he is passionate about — funding for domestic study trips. He said there’s an “inequity in funding” for trips in the U.S. as opposed to abroad.

“All travel has value,” Hayden said.

The Apollos is again filled with articles on the First Nation’s Club, interviews with the college’s Title IX coordinator, musings and manifestos, poetry and photos, and first-person biographies from athletes on personal and important issues.

The Apollos can be read at https://pscapollos.wordpress.com.