Cougar news services
Beginning May 28, The Daily Cougar will have a new editor in chief. The Student Publications Committee voted unanimously Friday to appoint Scott Williams, this semester's managing editor, as the Cougar editor for next summer and fall.
Although Williams described himself as "brusque" during the meeting, he said he works well with the staff.
Williams is a junior communication major at the University of Houston who has been a writer and interim music editor for Public News; an intern for Channel 13's Undercover unit; and copy editor, staff writer, columnist and managing editor for The Daily Cougar.
While he was editor in chief for the Egalitarian, the Houston Community College newspaper, Williams won awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association and the Texas Community College Journalism Association for feature layout, news layout, sports layout, column writing, news writing and headline writing.
"I'll probably use the same techniques I used at HCC, because they worked," Williams said.
"The biggest problem we're going to face is attrition," he added. "We're losing our sports editor, our chief copy editor, investigative writer Al Greenwood and after the summer, we may be losing our entertainment editor."
Williams said his main priority will be filling those spots and others that will be left empty from seniors graduating in May. "I'm going to go to English classes, journalism classes and recruit."
For now, Williams said he doesn't know who he will hire as managing editor, the second-in-command position at the Cougar.
"I'm going to do what Liz (Carter, the present editor) did and have everybody who works for us now fill out a new application." Williams said in doing this, he hopes some people will apply for positions they are qualified for, but for which they may have never thought to apply.