When I found out that my girlfriend - now fiancée - was chosen to represent our school as its mascot two years ago, I was ecstatic. I was so proud of her and her accomplishment as being just the third female to ever have the honor of being Raider Red. This past weekend, there was a ceremony to honor her and her Saddle Tramp counterpart, Chance McKee, called '"Passing of the Guns."
It is just the second year this ceremony has taken place, and it is a wonderful tradition that I hope goes on. Before "Passing of the Guns" was started, the identities and hard work of all Raider Reds was known to only a select few. Wanting to publicly recognize the students that give so much to the university anonymously, the Raider Red Committee introduced "Passing of the Guns" to honor these devoted and spirited students.
The ceremony is attended by family, friends, the High Riders and the Saddle Tramps, all of whom know the identity of Raider Red. The last party invited to attend is the medium through which the students of Texas Tech would get to learn the identity of Raider Red, which is a major goal of the ceremony. That last party invited was the press. When I got to school on the Monday after the "Passing of the Guns" ceremony, I expected to see an article in The Daily Toreador covering "Passing of the Guns."
I had very much enjoyed reading the article about "Transfer of the Reigns" that had appeared on the front page of The DT just one week prior. "Transfer of the Reigns" is the ceremony that honors the current and upcoming Masked Rider. The goal and spirit of "Passing of the Guns" and "Transfer of the Reigns" is virtually identical. After searching on the front page for the article about "Passing of the Guns," I began my confused and increasingly frustrated search through the pages of The DT, hoping to find the much-anticipated article.
On my second go though of the paper, I finally found the poor excuse for media coverage that was published concerning "Passing of the Guns": it was a small picture entitled "Raiders Revealed" on page seven, next to a picture of two students dressed like pigs and above a picture of a cow that had defecated on a certain spot as part of a game. To the immediate right of "Raiders Revealed" was an article entitled, "Jerry Springer talks politics, berates own show."
I was furious to find that The DT valued my fiancée's dedication and hard work enough to give her an alliterating title to her picture and place her in a mix of singing pigs, pooping cows and an article about the host of trash TV.
According to the 2008 Student Media Strategic Plan, the vision statement The DT states, "Student Media will be a leader in advancing the Texas Tech college experience through: serving as the designated public forum for the Texas Tech University System..." and goes on to state that "Student Media is committed to the values of ... service as the designated public forum for the Texas Tech University System ... cooperation and communication ... community service and innovation ... pursuit of excellence; public accountability..."
I hope that in the future, these goals and ideals are not lost to stories that may be more popular or easier to cover and that the students of Tech are not cheated by not being able to recognize peers around them that are truly interesting and fascinating but would never know it because of poor and lazy press coverage.
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