Mainbar SEO: Students pitch stories for Diamondback General meeting brings in exceptional pitches UM Students volunteer their

ideas to the Diamondback

Two students volunteered to write articles for the Diamondback at the school newspapers general assembly meeting last week before break. The meeting, held every Sunday evening at 8 p.m. in a Diamondback office, is open for nonmembers of the paper to pitch stories of their own. All students are welcome to come whether they are journalism majors or something entirely unrelated

My writers have tunnel vision; we need other people to keep their eyes peeled. -- Leah Villanueva

like an aerospace engineer, but in the wake of midterms and spring break, attendance was sparse. The meetings are often small, ranging between six to eight people, according to one of the more frequent members of the meeting, but only three students straggled into to the intimidatingly large meeting room across the hall from the main office. Where they lacked in numbers, they hardly made up for in pitches. When senior editor Leah Villanueva asked the group if they had any suggestions for a

story, the only reply was a brief awkward silence and three pairs of eyes that stared back at her blankly. It was hardly the response that she was looking for. Getting the pitch Villanueva, who is also a broadcast journalism major, explained that these meetings are extremely important for the Diamondback because it uncovers trending topics around the campus that Diamondback reporters would have otherwise missed. My writers have tunnel vision, Villanueva explained. We need other people to keep their eyes peeled. In short, for whatever trending topics a Diamondback writer or reporter was not assigned, the attendants at the general assembly meeting help to pick up the slack and give the paper a new point of view. Zo DiGiorgio, a sophomore English major, proved just that when she broke the silence established by the small crowd only seconds earlier. What about the University trying to shut down Humans Versus Zombies? What, Seriously? Villanueva perked up. Yeah! replied DiGiorgio, and she delved into a heavy explanation about how the Nerf Activity Society was asked to move its Nerfgun-based game indoors because of the recent gun scare that has spread across the campus. However now the University wants is considering banning the club altogether. Her story

resonated heavily with a similar story from last year about the clubs competition and how popular it was at the time, and Villanueva graciously accepted her pitch. The remaining students did not offer any other pitches, but Jeremy Snow did take a Diamondback-offered pitch about the architecture school changing their curriculum. He was not available for comments after the meeting. When asked about the overall turnout for the general assembly meeting, Villanueva was nonplussed, We have enough stories lined up to last us two weeks. The next general assembly meeting will be this upcoming Sunday at 8 p.m. for any students interested in providing pitches for the latest edition of the Diamondback.