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(1) Under already tight resources, newsrooms across the country are covering the #COVID19 pandemic. Journalists have been furloughed or laid off in a news cycle that never ends. But student newsrooms have a different challenge. Here's why.
(2) Student newsrooms often have small staff and aren't paid. We're paid @TheAlligator, but it's not much. Informing the community has become more important than this public health crisis. And while we navigate producing a print newspaper remotely, we're still breaking stories.
(3) Students have stepped up to cover their communities. @TheAlligator's coverage has not had a paywall, much less during this time. We sometimes worked 15+ hours a day, while struggling with our online transition. That's why it's more important now to #SaveStudentNewsrooms.
(4) We broke the story of @UF moving its classes online. In hours, we had stories on challenges of online classes, students who exposed to the virus (including our own staff), sports without fans, changes to campus cleanliness & the hospital's first case. https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-coronavirus-classes-required-to-move-online-shands-hospital-has-first-coronavirus-case/article_5cd563bc-63c7-11ea-aa78-6ffa95174808.html
(5) In minutes, we wrote a story about UF's first four #COVID19 cases –– announced not by the university, but by @GovRonDeSantis in a press briefing to the entire state. And I battled disappointment when my graduation was finally postponed. https://www.alligator.org/news/four-uf-students-have-covid-19-uf-spring-graduation-canceled-and-other-important-coronavirus-updates/article_348efc9e-6861-11ea-8935-7fa3a374c0eb.html
(6) We wrote about international students with no place to go except for their dorms after the university urged students to go home. https://www.alligator.org/news/covid-19-affects-study-abroad-international-students-in-dorms/article_6f421098-6ce8-11ea-81fe-f3f38299afeb.html
(7) Yes, our entertainment section @TheFloridaAve has even written about memes and baking bread during the pandemic. https://www.alligator.org/the_avenue/coronavirus-memes-provide-laughter-in-a-time-of-worry/article_6fad5862-6d38-11ea-b72d-2f41630e7f81.html
(8) And although not much as been announced yet, we broke the story of UF receiving $30+ million from the U.S. Department of Education. https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-to-receive-more-than-30-million-from-dept-of-education/article_ce292684-7b41-11ea-9bb2-5bb45254790e.html
(9) We broke a story about a jump in seven #COVID19 cases at UF over one weekend, including how the university quietly announced them on a new website when it had knowledge of cases over the weekend and didn't send a university-wide email. https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-has-7-new-covid-19-cases/article_8b67de4a-6c72-11ea-a161-5babd2962132.html
(10) We broke the story about how @ufstudentgov's virtual Senate meeting was Zoom bombed and how a 13-year-old girl in Tennessee is accused of doing it. But at least three other meetings affiliated with UF were also Zoom bombed. https://www.alligator.org/news/student-government-was-zoom-bombed-but-that-s-not-the-only-incident-connected-to-uf/article_c596232a-7ba3-11ea-b893-0f7b1df9992c.html
(11) Hundreds of people in the local Chinese community got together to gather money to ship medical supplies and donate them to Shand's Hospital. https://www.alligator.org/news/members-of-chinese-community-donate-medical-supplies/article_0f2d2eb4-77c8-11ea-9e19-43e3800c6913.html
(12) We broke a story about the first two positive #COVID19 cases at local Publix grocery stores and another at Whole Foods. https://www.alligator.org/news/gainesville-whole-foods-employee-tests-positive-for-covid-19/article_bf022e36-8252-11ea-96ff-9392379e2dd5.html
(13) We even wrote about the saga of a local business that was closed for serving customers during local and state stay-at-home orders. https://www.alligator.org/news/a-horror-show-mother-s-pub-reopened/article_f183e150-82da-11ea-9081-97fdf8ca73c0.html
(14) Reporters wrote about students who are planning a rent strike in May after the university's president told students to go home –– twice. https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-students-encouraged-in-an-email-to-participate-in-rent-strikes/article_3fa46a9a-837f-11ea-8991-8bf2cba139f2.html
(15) And sports keep writing about sports despite them all being canceled in the Spring. One of my favorites was about this semester's last baseball game. https://www.alligator.org/sports/it-s-like-a-black-eye-an-oral-history-of-the-last-game-at-alfred/article_374ac43e-72cc-11ea-a13b-236454049642.html
(16) Student newsrooms like ours have proven to be essential to the community and to students. It's more critical than ever to #SaveStudentNewsrooms, which is why I'm proud to support a movement started by my previous editors. Let's keep making papers.
