'Wildcat' editors prepare for next season

By Christie S. Peterson

Arizona Daily Wildcat

With graduation and the end of another semester imminent, some are already thinking ahead Ä like the newly hired editors-in-chief of the Wildcat, Christine Verges and Charles Ratliff.

Verges, a journalism graduate student, was chosen as the editor-in-chief for the 1995-96 academic year and Ratliff, also a graduate student in the Department of Journalism, was chosen to head the 1995 Summer Wildcat.

Verges has been working at the student-run newspaper as the copy chief since last summer when she "staggered in there ... looking for a job," she said.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Oregon State University, has free-lanced and worked as a reporter for a newspaper in Lake Havasu City.

Verges envisions a leaner, meaner Wildcat for next semester, one which publishes more "hard news" and is less "top heavy" in the delegation of responsibilities.

She said she wants to "shift the focus back onto reporters" in the newsroom.

Verges also wants to establish a site on the World Wide Web through which computer users Ä notably alumni Ä would have access to the daily editions of the Wildcat.

Ratliff has worked at the Wildcat since last semester as a news reporter and sports copy editor. He has also done layout and design.

He received his undergraduate degree in English writing from Grand Canyon University.

Ratliff said the Summer Wildcat differs from the Arizona Daily Wildcat in several ways. Most importantly, he said, it is only published once a week, operating with a smaller staff and budget.

There will be ten issues of the Summer Wildcat published this year, from June 7 to August 9.

"We want students to be able to pick up the Summer Wildcat and see sort of the same paper they saw in the fall and spring," said Ratliff, though he noted that the Summer Wildcat has more of a "weekly feel," which uses "front page cover art alluding to an inside story."

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