Thursday night as I opened QuarkXPress, the program we use to lay out the pages of the Daily, the message that always appears on the screen suddenly caught my eye: “For Educational Use Only.”

I had some sort of epiphany.

I realized that the only reason I’m here is to learn and to teach others.

Last April, a board of students, faculty and staff decided I was the best person to run this newspaper and to cultivate the talent of up-and-coming student journalists.

About 250 students work at the Daily, and I’m in charge of a majority of them. I work 40 to 50 hours a week, take 12 credits, manage to get good grades, and I have a decent social life.

In a week, the Iowa State Daily Publication Board will decide who gets to do all this over again next year. Believe it or not, there are four highly intelligent women who want to fill my shoes, even after the craziness of this week.

Or maybe I should say the craziness of spring break. Iowa State has had an incredible year in terms of sports. While the Daily loves to cover as many of those sports as we can, we do have a finite staff and a finite budget, and, unfortunately, all of these events landed in the span of an entire week in which we don’t publish.

The front page is only so big, and there are only so many things that can go on it.

Typically, the front page is reserved for news stories important to the ISU community. Sometimes a sports event is the biggest news on campus.

However, some people didn’t agree with our choice of which event to run on the front.

Between men’s basketball, women’s basketball, wrestling and gymnastics – among others – there were many sports events of interest over break. The two that were most likely to garner front-page placement were the basketball teams.

The women made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the third year in a row. The men didn’t – they didn’t even get past the first round.

At first blush, the women’s accomplishment may seem more newsworthy. But newsworthiness isn’t always based on positiveness, and the Daily isn’t a public relations tool for the university. Everybody expected the women to go to the Sweet Sixteen. It was a wonderful achievement, but not a shocking one.

The men were expected to go to the Sweet Sixteen as well. So why were they on the front page when they lost?

The pure shock of it.

This metropolis and those players were shocked as hell when the men lost in the first round. It was the end of an era, and frankly, more people wanted to read about it.

The Daily doesn’t discount the women’s accomplishment – in fact, we’re very proud, and many of our staff members are as big of fans as Wild Bill. But that doesn’t get in the way of our news judgment, and that doesn’t get in the way of our educational mission.

The Daily serves two main functions: To educate the public on what is happening at their university, and to educate the 250 students who work here on what it takes to be part of a daily newspaper.

And now, as you read this column, two photographers and two reporters are driving to Denver to cover the women as they take their stab at the Elite Eight.

They would be doing the same thing if the men were playing simultaneously in Anaheim this weekend.

We at the Daily understand that some of you will continue to be upset over our coverage of the NCAA Tournament, just as you’re probably upset at CBS for televising the men’s games and not the women’s.

We love and encourage feedback from readers, both positive and negative. But if you’re going to tell us we’ve done a poor job, please don’t make it a personal attack and please don’t forget why the Daily exists on campus.

“For Educational Use Only.”

Carrie Tett is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Ames. She is editor in chief of the Daily.