EIC OF KANSAS STATE'S INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER,
THE COLLEGIAN
Former two-time editor-in-chief for the Collegian. I also wrote stories for all desks and occasionally produced videos, created graphics and took photos. The Collegian is an independent club at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.
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Note: Because of the Collegian's website wipe due to the K-State cybersecurity incident in January 2024, links for stories before that date may not work or may be slow to load due to the Wayback Machine.
STORIES
COLLEGE IS SHORT — DO THE MOST WITH IT AND APPRECIATE IT
Letter | Vol. 129 Issue 30 | Friday, May 3, 2024 | Published on Web
It’s hard processing the end of so many chapters as the weeks of my college career dwindle down, but as the inevitable march of time carries on, you must stare down the truth that it’s time to depart and accept whatever is next in the path of life. For me, staring that down meant putting pen to paper, or hands to keyboard, and reflecting on four years of my life in a single article.
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As I departed from the Collegian, I wanted to give some advice of things I had learned and wanted to give one last goodbye to the paper. This is my final article for the Collegian: an open letter to the community, the paper and myself about everything from the past four years.
IAN PUNNETT, PROFESSOR AND WILDCAT 91.9 ADVISOR, DIES AT 63
News Obituary | Vol. 129 Issue 15 | Saturday, December 23, 2023 | Published on Web
Ian Punnett, 63, chief operator and faculty advisor for Wildcat 91.9 and professor at Kansas State, died Thursday after battling a genetic non-alcohol-related liver disorder.
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Ian was one of my professors the semester I wrote this, and I heard one of his final lectures, an epic tale on "tamim" and "integer." While this was hard to write, because I was so close with his coworkers and friends, we were able to get a story about him with quotes out in a day right before Christmas.
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Much like Lilly's obit earlier this year, I wasn't sure if I should put this one on my website either, but I do want to showcase his life and honor him, and I felt the article did a good job at such.
FORTNITE OG: A LESSON IN WHY SIMPLE IS BETTER
Arts & Culture Review | Vol. 129 Issue 15 | Friday, December 8, 2023 | Published on Web
Following the end of Fortnite’s fourth battle royale map in November, the cult-classic original arena rose in a triumphant return, reviving buried memories and past joys in all their glory. The five-year flashback returned the original map, weapons and items each week from old seasons. While the recreations were not one-to-one matches to their originals, it still felt like being back in 2018.
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I was very passionate about writing on the OG season of Fortnite, but with its rigorous update schedule, it would have been awkward to write a review for the paper (our paper released on update days). Instead, after the season finale gave way to the next era of Fortnite, I was inspired to focus on why the first Fortnite chapter worked so well: simplicity.
HOW AN ‘ALMOST-CHANCE MEETING’ IN LONDON BROUGHT GEORGE TAKEI TO K-STATE
Photo Caption | Vol 129 Issue 6; Friday, September 29, 2023 | Published on Web
George Takei spoke in McCain Auditorium about his book “They Call Us Enemy” on Sept. 27. The lecture included his childhood in Japanese-American internment camps in World War II, his public service and his activism. He ended his talk with a question to the audience: “Have we learned the lesson of history?”
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My dad used to watch Star Trek with me as a kid, so hearing about George Takei coming to campus peaked my interest. Andrew Smith, the man who helped bring Takei to campus, is pretty close with me, and he had a pretty cool story to share with me about how he got Takei to Manhattan, Kansas.
POKÉMON’S ‘THE TEAL MASK’: SHORT DOES NOT MEAN SWEET
Arts & Culture Review | Vol. 129 Issue 4 | Friday, September 15, 2023 | Published on Web | KCM 2024 Honorable Mention in Review
The Pokémon franchise has a good track record of making lengthy, engaging stories for your gameplay adventure that take the sting out of the big price tag most Nintendo games carry. However, Pokémon’s first half of its “Scarlet and Violet: Hidden Treasures of Area Zero” downloadable content add-on, “The Teal Mask,” surprised me with how soon the journey ended.
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I decided to follow up my review of the game as a whole with the first part of the DLC: "The Teal Mask." I thought I broke things down well for readers and it flowed well while giving a little bit lengthier review. I did not think it would receive any accolades, but it did place at the KCM 2024.
SUPER BLUE MOON LIGHTS THE NIGHT SKY
Arts & Culture Article | Vol 129 Issue 2; Friday, September 1, 2023 | Published on Web
A bright red moon peeked from beyond the eastern horizon Wednesday evening, illuminating the city below as the sun took its dip in the west. The super blue moon was not literally blue, but it did come closer to Earth and it marked the second full moon of the month.
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I've taken an interest up in astrophotography, and the super blue moon on Aug. 30 caught my attention. I wanted to showcase some photos in the newspaper and wanted to get some local insight to why it happened, so I showed up unannounced at Bharat Ratra's, professor at Kansas State and American Astronomical Society fellow, office to ask him some questions.
CHASE BANK DONATES TO LOCAL NONPROFITS AT AGGIEVILLE OPENING CEREMONY
News Article | Vol 129 Issue 2 (Front Cover); Tuesday, August 29, 2023 | Published on Web
Members of the Kansas State Marching Band and Manhattan Mayor Mark Hatesohl joined Chase Bank in Aggieville Tuesday as the business opened its first branch in Manhattan. Chase Bank donated $1,500 to Black Entrepreneurs of the Flint Hills and $1,000 to Powercat Financial as part of the celebration.
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I took this story on a whim to prove to myself that I may still help write stories while being editor-in-chief. I wanted to tell myself I had grown after my internship, so I took the assignment, skipped a couple classes and wrote the whole thing in a few hours.
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Also, some unrelated insight, I was almost hit by a car in a crosswalk on my way to cover this.
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CELEBRATES DEBUT ALBUM WITH ALTERNATIVE VERSION
Arts & Culture Review | Vol. 128 Issue 29 | Friday, April 28, 2023 | Published on Web
In the indie pop and alternative realms, few bands stick out quite like The Neighbourhood. The band fuses strong chords with its iconic sultry guitar, beautiful bass lines and amazing drums to keep the listener’s foot tapping with the high hat.
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I had this review planned for a while, excitedly telling our arts & culture editor Grace one random Sunday two months in advance that I wanted to do it. What I didn't expect was the "Chopped Not Slopped" version, an obscure mixing style I hadn't heard since a music/English elective my first semester at K-State.
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The Neighbourhood is one of my favorite artists, and with it being a decade since its debut album, "I Love You.", I knew I needed to write about it. The album is headlined by the incredibly popular (and one of my top songs), "Sweater Weather."
OBITUARY: LILLYAN KOEHN
News Obituary | Vol. 128 Issue 25 | Friday, March 31, 2023 | Published on Web
Lillyan Koehn, 19, died in a car crash on March 10 in Newton, Kansas. She was a freshman in bakery science at Kansas State, played volleyball and soccer throughout her childhood and joined Alpha Chi Omega this past fall. She was a Christian from a young age and volunteered at summer camps for her church.
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I wanted to honor Lilly with more than just a short obituary outlining details of the what and why — I wanted a full story. And yes, I did question if it was right putting this on my website, but I want to tell her story here too.
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I was so nervous writing this that it took me a while to gain the nerve to reach out to her friends and family. Luckily, after just one message with one of her friends, her mother and family started reaching out to me.
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I never knew Lilly, but by the end of writing the obituary, I feel like I had grown to know her somehow. My original version of her obit was over 1,100 words because I wanted to give every last detail, and I felt bad having to chop it down to 660. I felt worse using her full name on subsequent reference after looking in the AP Stylebook and remembering you can use a person's preferred first name.
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There's more I wish I could've done with this piece, but for what it's worth, this is what I got.
‘POKÉMON SCARLET AND POKÉMON VIOLET’: UNPOLISHED, BUT STILL WORTH THE PLAY
Arts & Culture Review | Vol. 128 Issue 21 | Friday, February 24, 2023 | Published on Web
In a franchise infamous for reusing its role-playing formula of battling gyms, catching Pokémon and defeating a chaos-causing syndicate, Game Freak Co. Ltd. shook things up with its newest generation of Pokémon games, Scarlet and Violet. The Paldea region, the Spain-like setting of the games, introduces new twists and a compelling storyline to the series’ otherwise cookie-cutter gameplay.
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This was my first attempt at writing a review. Given my love for video games and the lack of video game reviews on our website, I thought I'd do one over the newest Pokémon games, Scarlet and Violet.
BREAKING: KELLY PROJECTED TO WIN OVER SCHMIDT IN CLOSE RACE FOR GOVERNOR
News Brief | Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | Published on Web
Laura Kelly/David Toland (D) are projected to win with 49% for Governor/Lt. Governor with 100% of the vote counted. Derek Schmidt/Katie Sawyer (R) follow with 48% of the vote while Seth Cordell/Evan Laudick-Gains (L) hold 1% and Dennis Pyle/Kathleen E. Garrison (I) hold 2% of the vote. The gap between Kelly and Schmidt is less than 15,000 votes.
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The breaking news isn't especially worth putting on this site, but managing election night totally is.
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"All hands on deck" was a real role call, and assigning it all was a real push at the end. Sending reporters and photogs to watch parties, assigning reporters to tracking votes, setting our copy chief Kira up to manage social media updates and picking the two people to write briefs. I put myself at the head of the website as I had by far the most WordPress experience and we did not have a website manager yet.
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Worse case scenario happened hit in the middle of the action: our website crashed for half an hour because of our volume of posts. It did give everyone some much needed breathing room for a bit at least.
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I took us off the script for how our advisor planned us to run the website and social media for the night, and I believe it was the correct decision in the end. We had our two writers constantly pumping out number updates for races when results came in, and these excerpts were going up about once per minute. This made it much easier for Kira to access our social media manager and send out updates to our Twitter and Facebook.
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At the end of the night when Grace signed off on Wildcat 91.9, we had a nice hurrah moment with everyone left in the building. It was midnight, and it was a success. And then I woke up early the next day to write this, a nice cap to our busy election night.
STUDENT PRICE INDEX LOCALIZES NATIONWIDE INFLATION RATES
News Article | Vol 128 Issue 10; Friday, October 28, 2022 | Published on Web | CMA 2023 Honorable Mention in Best Interactive Graphic; KCM 2023 Honorable Mention in Digital Storytelling
As prices increase across the country, Sydney Rehagen, senior in economics and supply chain management, is on a mission. As the vice president of the Kansas State Economics Club, she set out to answer one question: how are K-State students impacted by inflation?
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This story combined my two academic passions: journalism and economics. So when the Collegian's previous editor-in-chief warned me of this upcoming event, I jumped head-first and signed myself up to cover it.
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Before this story I had no idea the econ club did this localized index, but it's a legitimate insight to how prices are changing in our local economy; and, a much better representation of the community's economy than the consumer price index.
STUDENT LEADERSHIP TACKLES TAILGATE TRASH
News Article | Vol 128 Issue 5; Friday, September 23, 2022 | Published on Web
After the South Dakota football game on Sept. 3, a now-deleted tweet showing the trash-ridden tailgate lot following the game accumulated over 19,000 views. The tweet gained attention across campus and social media, including a post by Barstool Kansas State and a reply from BigGameBoomer.
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This was one of my more challenging stories. Not because the content was necessarily hard, but because it was a test for juggling writing a story with the responsibilities of being editor-in-chief.
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Part of what made biding time to write the story interesting was hearing direct results of seeing how students were leading and handling the situation. It was also cool getting retweeted by Kappa Sigma, who have a fraternity at K-State and one of whose members I interviewed.
ON-CAMPUS LIVING REQUIRED FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS STARTING NEXT SEMESTER
News Article w/ Lexi Liby | Vol 127 Issue 29; Friday, May 6, 2022 | Published on Web | KCM 2023 Honorable Mention in General News Writing
Incoming freshman Jenna Melton will pack her life into boxes, leave her hometown and arrive at the dorms to begin her first year of college next semester. However, the dorms were not her first choice.
LGBTQ COMMUNITY LEADERS COME TOGETHER FOR K-STATE CONFERENCE
News Article | Vol 127 Issue 28; Friday, April 29, 2022 | Published on Web
Will Rapp, statewide organizer for GLSEN Kansas, speaks at Kansas LGBTQ Leadership Conference on Friday, April 22, 2022. (Carter Schaffer | Collegian Media Group)
Lori Cruz, survivor intake specialist for the Center for Advocacy, Response and Education at K-State, had their unnamed piece featured at the conference. (Carter Schaffer | Collegian Media Group)
Will Rapp, statewide organizer for GLSEN Kansas, speaks at Kansas LGBTQ Leadership Conference on Friday, April 22, 2022. (Carter Schaffer | Collegian Media Group)
The Kansas State LGBT Resource Center sponsored the first in-person Kansas LGBTQ+ Leadership Conference since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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I went a bit out of my comfort zone writing this story. I had never reported on LGBTQ+ issues before, and I'm not exactly the most relatable guy for reporting it. Going into it, I wasn't sure what my news editor, who assigned the story to me, expected.
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However, I'm really thankful for the experience. It's good pushing yourself, and it was a much-needed addition to my toolkit. I learned some new perspectives and reporting mannerisms.
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Never let your doubts stop you from reporting outside your bubble.
RUMOR HAS IT: WEFALD HALL RUMORS SPREAD ABOUT THE BUILDING’S CONSTRUCTIONAL INTEGRITY, FUTURE
News Article | Vol 127 Issue 27 (Front Cover); Friday, April 22, 2022 | Published on Web
Word-of-mouth rumors about Wefald Hall’s stability and structural integrity have floated among students on campus and prospective students this year. While seemingly harmless, the spreading rumors have caused concern for Wefald’s leaders.
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I was very proud to be featured on the front cover of the newspaper, the first time it happening. It was also one of the first stories I felt really good about — interviewing lots of sources, getting both perspectives and feeling like I wrote a hit.
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However, upon reading it, it was pretty edited, and looking back on it, I wish I had done more with the story.
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If I could go back, I'd interview the construction company and research its records. It's a crucial perspective I glaringly missed. I focused too much on the rumor aspect and not enough on the facts aspect.
STUDENT UNION LEADERSHIP TACKLES BUDGET CUTS
News Article | Vol 127 Issue 26; Friday, April 8, 2022 | Published on Web
Two years after COVID-19 hit the university, the aftermath and shockwaves sent through every service on campus finally caught up to the Kansas State Student Union. For Executive Director Corey Williamson and the Student Governing Association, that means making budget cuts.
UNION SERVICES WILL DECREASE AFTER SGA VOTES TO REDUCE BUDGET
News Article | Vol 127 Issue 24; Friday, March 24, 2022 | Published on Web
The Kansas State Student Union will reduce services for three years because of low enrollment and a freeze on tuition and fees, according to a new bill passed unanimously by the Student Governing Association on Thursday, March 10.
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This was my first story with the Collegian. I probably should've been more nervous, but given it was a modified version of the article in my other class, the editing was the only tricky part.
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My news editor had a lot to point out on thing's needing fixed — and yes, they were absolutely necessary edits. Looking back I've come to appreciate having a tough first news editor who pointed everything out and asked what I was thinking and giving that direct feedback.
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I continued to cover the beat through the rest of the semester. I was originally given the beat from my MC 200 class. I never knew this would lead to me joining the Collegian and quickly taking up the editor-in-chief mantle.
VIDEOS
SANDSTORM IN BRAMLAGE FOR KSTATEWBB VS. TEXAS 2024
Sports Video | January 13, 2024
Up 50-45 with a little over eight to go in the fourth quarter, Bramlage Coliseum belted Darude's Sandstorm out. Sandstorm is one of many K-State traditions — especially to Bramlage and the basketball teams.
JEROME TANG SUNFLOWER SHOWDOWN VICTORY SPEECH TO STORMED BRAMLAGE COURT
Sports Video | January 17, 2023
After winning the famous Sunflower Showdown against Kansas in overtime 83-82, Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang gives a post-game speech to a stormed Bramlage court.
KSU VS. WVU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Sports-Recap Video | March 20, 2022
On March 2, 2022, The Kansas State Wildcats team took on the West Virginia Mountaineers. The women's basketball teams clashed in Bramlage Stadium in Manhattan, KS in an exciting Double Overtime win for the Mountaineers. (NOTE: This video was accepted by the Collegian but was never posted on its channels.)