Just lost My Job

As mentioned in one of the previous posts - i had a job and now i don't.

I'm a third and final year student at North West Univeristy (Mafikeng campus) studying Bachelors of Administration and major with Human Resource Management and Public Administration in South Africa.

Early this year, i applied for a position in a stundent paper called The Album and i got the job after some few trials.

I was excited and happy that i was given the opportunity to add value to the university by being a "freelance" writer to the newspaper and write on issues related to the students and anything concerning the university.

The paper was a bi-monthly paper and it was hardly three or four months being with the paper when i heard bad news. It was just on the day that we were going to print when The Album crew was told that the management decided not to sponsor the newspaper anymore.

The newspaper has been sponsored by the university management since its formation in 2004.

I call it my job because it was what kept me going, giving me the edge, having to meet deadline, interview people and cover certain stories or issues that student and or management might regard sensitive. That's the challenge i had been looking for all along and now that i had found one - it was taken away from me and the rest of the crew.

Surprisingly, there is a newspaper ran and sponsored by the university called Campus News. I think the management made a very silly and inconsiderate decision by deciding not to sponsor the paper i was working for and instead, the Campus News - which is not a bad thing at all.

It would have been better if the management had decided to take The Album crew and put them in the Campus news because that would have left them with something to do.

It was also inconsiderate of management to discontinue to sponsor The Album because it gave Journalism and Communication students a platform whereby they are able assess their writing and communication skills as there is no other methods of assessment other than examination that such students could use.

It was very exciting having to work with The Album crew, they were energetic and good people to work with.

But one could ask this, since The Album was a platform for Journalism and Communication student in the University to assess their capabilities - "How will they know if they have good writing skills if they decided to follow Journalism as their career?"

Is the university to blame for having deprived student the only opportunity they had?

Well maybe university management or whoever decided on such a decision knew what they (s/he) were(was) doing, but then again didn't think well because at least they could have had a proper consultation with the paper especially writers - and they didn't which left such students (us writers) with and in confusion.

Do you think the University management needed a "Third View" on discontinuing their sponsorship? I personnally think they should have considered the impact their decision would or could have on students in the long run and the university's reputation for that matter.

I guess i'm lucky because you are reading 'My Newspaper', hey?

Funny how some people and or "management" can be not consultative.