The editorship of The Daily Texan has been a springboard to journalistic success for many. After all, the paper has won more national, regional and state awards than any other college newspaper in America and counts 10 Pulitzer Prize winners among its former staffers.
Alexander Chase is the latest in a long line of editors steering the course of this venerable publication. Chase graduated from Royse City High School and is an economics and Plan II senior, pursuing a Bridging Disciplines Program certificate in public policy. “I was introduced to the BDP program through the Rapoport Service Scholarship program, which is, in large part, the reason I had the time and financial flexibility to work for The Texan in the first place,” he explains.
Chase spent the summer after his freshman year working in Royse City on a development project and the summer following his sophomore year interning with Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea.
“I joined the Texan in the fall of 2015,” Chase remembers. “Alongside work with Commissioner Shea, I also worked at Central Market, and when my manager kept increasing my hours there during the first week of classes, I put in my notice. Having more free time than I wanted, I was wandering through the West Mall after class when I ran into then-Managing Editor Jack Mitts, who encouraged me to apply. I had met Claire Smith, then the editor-in-chief, in an introductory Arabic class and applied to work in opinion under her, wanting to write about sustainability and transportation policy. I ended up writing about everything from Confederate plaques at the state Capitol to daily fantasy football that semester, and applied to be on her editorial board over the break. Less than a month after starting that position, I applied to take her place. I ran unopposed and started prepping for the job early in February.”
Chase has tried to focus largely on personnel development in his time as editor, and he gives Smith a lot of credit for what he perceives to be his successes on that front. “While she had to hire on almost all of her staff when she took charge, I was able to bring back many writers hired at the same time as me. That meant I had more experienced writers to lean on but also that I had to earn the respect required to act as a superior to staffers whom I had the same credentials as,” he says.
“Despite this, the department has had almost zero staffers leave the department during the semester since I was hired onto the editorial board, and no senior staffers quit early,” Chase adds. “This had been a significant problem for the past several years, but instead, we currently have the problem of too many staffers with the qualifications and aspirations to move up. We had a contested race for EIC between two candidates more qualified than myself and interest from others wary of entering a crowded field. It looks as though there are candidates interested for next year as well, which is to say we’ll be in a healthy position for some time.” [After this interview, Laura Hallas was elected editor for the 2017-18 academic year.]
Looking forward, Chase hopes to take his experience in writing and editing, as well as his experience in public affairs, into the classroom. “I was recently accepted into the 2018 Teach For America corps and placed in Baltimore,” he relates. “I’m hoping to end up teaching English or social studies at the secondary level.”
It’s clear that whatever he tackles in the future, Chase’s experience as editor-in-chief of The Daily Texan will give him valuable experiences to draw upon.
Anne Telford graduated from UT Austin in 1980 with a degree in journalism and was entertainment and then images editor of The Daily Texan. After graduation she did a stint at Texas Monthly and later was managing editor of Communication Arts magazine for 14 years. Anne lives in her hometown, La Jolla, California, and is a freelance writer and editor; she also writes a blog for http://www.luerzersarchive.com.