The SOAS Spirit: My experience amplifying the student voice

BA Politics and International Relations student Jacob Winter shares his experience working as an Editor-At-Large at the student newspaper, The SOAS Spirit. 

If you’ve been on campus, you will have seen The SOAS Spirit dotted around and handed out outside. It’s been a presence on campus since 1936 and is an entirely independent student-run newspaper that runs four editions annually.

The SOAS Spirit forms a vital part of the campus identity but also serves an essential role on campus for holding the institutions that students belong to accountable, bringing relevant student-based news to the attention of the student body as well as spotlighting unique perspectives on global news, culture and opinion.

How I got involved with the student newspaper

The SOAS Spirit, like any other student newspaper, is essential for the development of any budding student journalist. Many famous journalists, politicians and novelists found their start in their respective student papers, such as Prime Minister Gordon Brown finding his start in the University of Edinburgh’s student publication.

The SOAS Spirit has remained at the forefront of the student experience, allowing individuals to express their opinions and unique journalistic flair in an open forum that anybody can submit to.

I joined the SOAS Spirit newspaper as a contributor, writing at least one article for each edition, and now in my second year, I’ve been Editor-At-Large with my own Roaming Reporter column. 

My experience with student media has been incredibly formative and has been an opportunity to perfect my skills as a journalist. I began to work with the SOAS Spirit due to my own passion for writing, having run an opinions piece blog on the website Medium during my time at sixth form, and the SOAS Spirit was a new way to engage with this in a format.

The first article I wrote was an interview with a student who had been publicly removed from an alumni book club event for disrupting the occasion and criticising the Director of the university, who was in attendance at the time. The difference in writing a journalistic, interview piece compared to regular opinion pieces was made clear, and certain obligations such as keeping the individual anonymous as well as portraying the events truthfully was a stark change to my previous experience. The piece was exciting and certainly felt like “proper” journalism. As an introduction to writing for the Spirit, I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

How it runs behind the scenes

The SOAS Spirit doesn’t have a regular team of writers, and instead, article pitches are open for any student at SOAS who wishes to put themselves forward. Staff roles are unpaid and are instead all done by 25 dedicated volunteers. Funding comes primarily from the Student Union as well as a variety of private sponsorships, allowing us to print and distribute our four yearly editions of the newspaper. 

There are a range of roles behind the scenes. Section editors edit the individual parts of the newspaper, such as News, Opinions and Culture. They provide several pitches to the Senior Editorial Team, who provide feedback on said pitches. This is usually the day after an open writers' pitch meeting for students is held, where students can put themselves down for pitches suggested by the Section Editors or suggest their own. 

Our other editorial roles include Sub-Editors, who, following the Section Editors, edit their writers’ pieces, double-check and edit grammar and formatting within the article, managed by the Senior Sub-Editor. The managing editor deals with the administration side of the paper, particularly budgeting, room bookings for our newsrooms and pitch meetings, and printing the paper.

The SOAS Spirit keeps up-to-date with the news on campus primarily from the animus of students who seek to inform us about their societies, various problems on campus or campaigns. Many of our writers and editors are embedded within other student groups and societies, meaning they can keep their ears to the ground on news from the student body.

The impact of amplifying the student voice

Students have submitted incredibly important campus-based news stories: on the closure of the SOAS bookshop, the university’s expenditures and brave, controversial opinion pieces on the structure of the SOAS Student Union and on the role of boycotts in challenging injustice, bringing forward the voice of SOAS’ student body.  

The articles the paper has produced have likewise made a tangible impact on the Student Union, with a piece I wrote about the struggles of individuals who commute into SOAS from outside of London, both students and staff, which has led to a Student Union focus group on commuting students. Similarly, an opinion piece about the lack of transparency from Co-Presidents has led to a more regular system of updates from the Co-Presidents on their activities.

Many famous journalists, politicians and novelists found their start in their respective student papers.

If there have been any hiccups in my overwhelmingly positive experience of the Spirit, it is an issue regarding funding. Producing a free newspaper does mean that funding still remains one of our primary concerns. Despite priding ourselves on our ability to hold our own student institutions accountable, our editorial independence can be hampered by our reliance on limited Student Union funding. 

With a higher budget, access to the SOAS Spirit would be significantly increased, and we could create the best opportunities for our writers to go to events and places without reaching into their own pockets to pay.

Getting involved

In spite of this, The SOAS Spirit has remained at the forefront of the student experience, allowing individuals to express their opinions and unique journalistic flair in an open forum that anybody can submit to. My experience with the Spirit has always been of friendly and open editors, enthusiastic writers and a flair for delivering a quality paper for all SOAS Students to be able to read and enjoy.

If you want to get involved, check the SOAS Spirit Instagram page, where we post updates on our writer's pitch meetings. At the end of this year, we will be hiring a new editorial team, so we encourage all students to throw their hat in the ring.