by Jessica Del Curto
Daily Lobo
Riley Bauling is the Daily Lobo's jack-of-all-trades.
On May 1, he will be able to put his talents to good use as the editor in chief of the student newspaper.
Bauling has been working at the sports desk at the Lobo for the past three years, but he knows more than athletes.
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"What I admire most is his intelligence on so many different levels," said Rivkela Brodsky, this year's editor in chief. "Although he is the sports editor, it's not like that's it. He doesn't think it's good enough for him to just edit the sports desk."
Bauling, who is majoring in political science with a minor in Spanish, said he cares a lot about the newspaper.
"Three years ago I walked in to the newsroom and started writing stories," Bauling said. "Ever since then, I've always wanted to be responsible for putting out the paper."
He said he's grown a lot since the first story he wrote for the Daily Lobo.
"The first time I wrote a story, I was nervous as hell that so many people were going to pick up the paper and see my name and see a story I was responsible for," he said. "I came in here, and I wrote that first story, and I was sweating bullets. I picked it up the next day, and I read it, and I saw people in my classes reading it. That's when I realized that this was something I really wanted to be a part of."
Bauling was one of two candidates who applied for editor in chief. The Daily Lobo staff voted overwhelmingly in Bauling's favor, but the Student Publications Board made the final decision. The board is made up of six members who oversee student publications, which consist of Best Student Essays, Conceptions Southwest and the Daily Lobo.
Bob Gassaway, chairman of the board, said it was Bauling's experience that sold him.
"I thought he was well-qualified," Gassaway said. "And he certainly had a good reputation among the Daily Lobo staff. The staff vote was quite persuasive for me."
Brodsky agreed. She said as sports editor this year, Bauling's charisma and professionalism helped nurture a strong group of writers.
"He created a staff of reporters who are incredibly dedicated to him," she said.
Bauling said his strengths lie in getting people to feel comfortable.
"I am a genuine person in that people come to me with things they want to talk about because they know they can trust me," he said. "I think I get that from my dad, who can talk everyone's ear off and make them feel like a million dollars."
Bauling said the trick to a good interview is to do research and to treat it as a conversation.
"The biggest thing was sitting down and just letting the tape recorder run for 45 minutes to an hour and just talk about everything," he said.
Brodsky said Bauling's technique helped readers get to know the athletes he wrote about, and see into their psyche, rather than writing an article just on football or soccer game stats.
"To me, that's a lot more interesting than that they won some national championship," she said.
Next year Bauling will lead a staff of people who are new to the Daily Lobo, because out of about a staff of 20, half are graduating. He said this is a good thing.
"A lot of people that are here this year have been a part of the staff for upward of two years," he said. "We kind of get ingrained in these niches that we can't get out of. When a bunch of new people come in, they have a fresh new way of looking at things."
Criticism is something Bauling welcomes.
"That means people are reading the stories, people are picking up the paper," he said. "And if they don't like something, or if something is being written that's sparked enough furor in them to do something about it, that means we are doing our job as a paper."
Bauling plans to go to law school eventually, but after he graduates in May 2007, he wants to go to Central America or South America to teach English as a second language.
"But I would also entertain the idea of working for a local paper," he said. "Or becoming fluent enough in Spanish so I can work in Central and South America for a paper down there."
For now, Bauling is ready to add editor in chief to his list of accomplishments.
"It's funny that you can speak to so many people without even having to talk," he said. "That feeling is pretty incredible."
