An Organizational Problem

This morning I got to class about 10 minutes early and picked up today’s issue of the Red and Black. The front page story entitled “Budget hinders Physical Plant” caught my attention with the lede. It was long. Three full sentences in one lede. It succeeded in catching my attention by using the pronoun “they” repetitively before reminding me that the article was about the physical plant. But, ending the lede with the sentence, “They are the University's Physical Plant - and many students may not know they exist,” does not tell me what the article is about. That is unless the article really is about how students on campus don’t know that the physical plant exist. But that would not be a front page article. The next paragraph simply says that more students will become aware of the plant’s existence in the future (also not what the article is about). The third paragraph states the subject of the article, that the physical plant has fallen victim to budget cuts, and gives the location of the plant. Yet, I got the same information from the headline. I still don’t know how the budget cuts are affecting the plant and the location of the plant seems somewhat trivial when speaking of cut backs. Finally, in the last paragraph before the jump, the article says that the plant is having trouble affording to replace equipment. One of the needed machines was a backup air compressor for the steam plant on campus. The article says, “With two compressors, if one broke down, the other could be used to keep operations running. But with budget cuts, he said the machine must wait.” The article is paraphrasing Ken Crowe, but I don’t believe that the machine is waiting on a backup. A better paraphrase would have been, “he said that plant will have to wait on the machine.” A couple of the last paragraphs deal with how the “things that have traditionally made our campus beautiful and attractive” will be put on backburner and students will see more chipped paint and worn carpets. I would have moved them to the top, as they seem the most relevant to students on campus. My last concern is with the sources. The reporter used three sources, which is good. But, there is a whole list of directors for the University's Physical Plant who could have been interviewed to get a good grasp of the affect of the budget cuts.