Adviser reflects on 23 years in the game
By Debra Chandler Landis
Editor
Students can surprise us for the good and the bad.
As is inevitable in college media advising, I experienced both.
And sometimes, we may forget that students arrive with life experiences, and as a result, may handle changes and challenges more readily than we might expect.For example, this past spring, I dreaded, for whatever reason, telling the editor-in-chief and assistant editors of The Journal, the University of Illinois Springfield student newspaper, that i was retiring after 23 years on the job and that the university seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace to hire my successor. I wanted to tell then first before telling the entire Journal staff.
When I told the editor-in-chief about my upcoming retirement and plans to develop a home-based free-lance writing and editing business, she said something to the effect of, “Retirement isn’t a time for sadness. It’s a time to celebrate the person, recognize accomplishments, and consider opportunities ahead. We will have a party for you.”