Sometimes I’d rather have a normal college-student job.

Maybe the library’s hiring. Are there any openings at the Rec Center?

Last Sunday was one of those times.

For the first time in my tenure as editor of your student newspaper, the news — the bad news — was made by people I know. It was made by my friends, friends I hadn’t seen for years.

My fraternity brothers were up from the University of Missouri on what we called (at least we did when I was a there) a “pledge skip.”

It’s when new members and seniors board these huge charter buses and visit another chapter. It’s traditionally a good time. It’s traditionally a real good time.

It was the seniors I knew. My first year out of high school I attended Missouri for a semester. I pledged a Mizzou fraternity and got to know rather intimately this group of college freshman.

By large, these are good guys. They’re compassionate almost to a fault. They’re enjoyable and genuine. They were — still are — my friends.

We had some trouble on our pledge skip three years ago at the University of Nebraska. Some of my pledge brothers got a little overzealous while souvenir hunting.

They probably should have known that a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln with its own night lighting wasn’t for the taking.

And they probably should have known that the campus police weren’t going to believe they were digging through a dumpster and just happened to find one of the most photographed landmarks in the state of Nebraska.

Given the history, I was almost certain the weekend would be calm. I was wrong. There was again trouble with the local authorities. Comparatively, it wasn’t anything huge, just vandalism, likely the product of alcohol.

But nonetheless it was there black and white on a police report, staring me in the face. At first I felt betrayed. Then I felt angry. Then I felt guilty. Then I had to make a decision.

A couple of uninvolved people told me to overlook it. They said it was within my power to let it slide, to sweep it under the rug. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. I’d be lying if I said pretending my police reporter just didn’t see that report wasn’t a tempting notion.

It wasn’t the first time — and won’t be the last — that I was asked by a friend to skew the news.

But most of the time those requests come from people I know who don’t want their names in the police blotter. That’s a no-big-deal thing.

My response to those requests is always consistent. It’s always no. I suppose that’s why I decided this story would have to be done.

On the strength of the same argument, I couldn’t justify ignoring crime news simply because those involved were my friends.

I was also told by some that the only reason the Daily was considering running a story was because it involved a fraternity, though admittedly not an ISU fraternity.

But for me, this wasn’t as tough of an issue as was potentially embarrassing my friends with a story about their stupidity.

I simply explained to the rather irate caller that I am a very proud member of the ISU greek system, that it certainly isn’t in my best interests to intentionally degrade an organization that I hold in a high regard.

He seemed OK with that.

I actually felt better after that call because it forced me to verbalize my justification for the story. I reassured myself that I was doing the right thing.

What also helped was a frank conversation about the situation with one of my ISU fraternity brothers.

He was open and honest about what he knew. He told me straight up what had happened, apologized to those affected by the vandalism and in no way attempted to keep quiet or minimize the situation.

That impressed me. That kind of candid honesty is something we need more of around our university community as we embrace much larger issues than petty vandalism.

So we ran the story. It was a front-pager with a couple of smaller follow-ups later in the week. A couple of callers left me some nasty voice mail messages, but nothing out of the ordinary for almost any Daily story.

I feel pretty good about it now. I’m confident we did the right thing. I’m still a little ticked at my friends down south, but I’ll probably get over that, too.

Besides, I’ve only been to the Rec Center once this semester, and I’m not even 100 percent sure I know where the library is.

---

Chris Miller is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Marshalltown. He is editor in chief of the Daily.