By Rick Bella Torch Editor-in-Chief, 1974-75
It’s been a long time since we last spoke — 50 years, in fact. But I want to tell you how excited I am to learn that The Torch is again alive and well at Lane Community College.
Over the years, I’d lost track of The Torch, incorrectly assuming that LCC regarded its role as essential and would protect it. I thought the institutional and political groundwork laid by the late Pete Peterson, journalism instructor and Torch advisor from 1971-2002, would make the campus-focused media complex forever safe.
I was wrong.
I was distressed to learn last year that The Torch had fallen on tough times. It had become all but financially orphaned and was teetering on the edge of oblivion.
But then, I was elated to learn that Camilla Mortensen, Eugene Weekly’s editor-in-chief and a University of Oregon instructor, had begun teaching journalism again at Lane while serving as The Torch’s advisor.
I was over the moon to hear Camilla had recruited former Torch Editor Chandlor Henderson to return for a second tour of duty and revive the struggling operation.
And now, I am very happy to see the reins have been turned over to Editor-in-Chief Kat Tabor and Managing Editor River Shepherd. They are a good team – energetic and dedicated to making the organization strong online and in print.
Kat and River have assembled a solid team of reporters, a photographer and a cartoonist who cover everything from academics and the arts to politics and sports.
Together, they regularly feed an easy-to-navigate home page (https://lcctorch.com/) and maintain a social media presence while still putting hard-copy print editions into the campus newspaper boxes.
Of course, The Torch offers invaluable co-op internships to budding journalists who want to sharpen their skills and get real-world experience at writing stories.
At the same time, working at The Torch can help non-journalists learn how to research a topic, distill the information and express it clearly.
The Torch also informs students – and faculty members – about the ever-changing politics, programs and people on the LCC campus. That, in turn, facilitates the campus conversation, empowering readers to help shape the environment around them. This is exactly why democracy needs strong journalism to keep it vital.
At LCC, it can mean holding the Board of Education accountable for its decisions and its decision-making processes.
It can mean shedding a wider, brighter light on successful new programs as yet little known beyond small circles.
It can mean giving voice to people and personalities too often overlooked in the daily grind.
In short, The Torch can be the mirror, flashlight and hammer for the entire campus.
I say that with confidence because The Torch was all those things for me, giving me the basic tools to forge a 40-year career in Oregon journalism.
In the fall of 1974, I arrived at LCC to study journalism and finish some lower-division credits after a health emergency knocked me out of the University of Oregon. Because The Torch was on shaky ground, I soon was drafted to become editor and restore stability. With the help of an eager staff and wide support, we turned everything around.
The following year, I returned to the UO and became managing editor of the Daily Emerald while working as a part-time correspondent for United Press International. After that, I worked for the Springfield News, Eugene Register-Guard, Oregon Journal and The Oregonian, where I put in 33 years as a reporter, editor and columnist. I’m proud to say I won a bunch of awards along the way.
But I never forgot where I got my start.
In fact, it still feels as though The Torch gave me wings and taught me how to fly. After that, where and how high I flew was up to me.
The Torch is LCC’s eyes and ears. It can spot change – good and bad – before it lands at our feet. That gives everyone a chance to react, to take part in the democratic process.
Most of all, however, The Torch is LCC’s voice, part stage, part trumpet and part microphone for the entire campus.
It’s a joy for me to hear those voices again, in the place where I first learned how to speak.
Rick Bella
503-913-4199
