Harper Alderson is the only candidate running for Editor of the University Times (UT), the official newspaper of Trinity College Dublin. This means that she will win the election unless more people vote to re-open nominations (RON) than herself. She is the only candidate running uncontested in this year’s Students’ Union sabbatical elections.
Harper Alderson is currently the Deputy Editor of UT (the second highest rank in the newspaper, immediately below the Editor). She is a Junior Sophister PPES student. “I grew up in Brooklyn, New York City,” Alderson told me in an excited, energetic tone, “I went to Bard High School Early College.” This is where she got involved in journalism for the first time — “I started a publication called The Underground because I thought that the regular student newspaper was too dogmatic, this is like when I was 16”, she laughed. She then described a “funny situation” in which her publication found out and published who their new school principal was going to be, and “got into a lot of trouble … it delayed us getting a new principal for like an entire semester”, she added.
Alderson has also worked in the legal field for the last four years in prestigious organisations such as the New York District Attorney office. Regarding her role as Deputy Editor, Alderson commented that “if anyone has interacted with UT … they have probably seen me in their inbox”. She went on to say that she has written around “50 articles this year”, and that under her leadership as Deputy Editor, sports reporting has increased by around 350%. Alderson started out as the newspaper’s Puzzle Editor, which she describes as her “passion project”.
When asked about why she wants to be the Editor of UT, Alderson replied, “I love the University Times. I probably commit most of my time in Trinity for the University Times”. She said that she “cares a lot about student journalism”, and describes it as a “last bastion” as “local journalism is pretty much dying everywhere else”.
This year, the University Times and TCDSU have had a tumultuous relationship. During this year’s fourth Comhairle, the current Editor, Charlie Hastings, had a motion of censure brought against him by the Chair of the Oversight Commission, Aaron Groome, because of alleged claims that the print budget exceeded expectations under his leadership. During this Comhairle, Alderson commented that the censure “seems very out of nowhere”. When asked if Alderson would take measures to change or maintain this relationship, she said that she “does not plan on interacting with the SU in a professional capacity in any way beyond what is mandated constitutionally”.
In her manifesto, Alderson says she aims to deliver more than the one monthly issue mandated by the SU. She hopes to publish the print newspaper “once every two weeks, to meet the highest standards of student newspapers in Europe: “the weekly paper is to make us highly competitive”, she said. Alderson added that she wants to implement “an executive board with a financial manager and a business manager … this would make our budget negotiations, advertisements and revenue a central focus point”. She added that she has “been in talks with printers … I can’t give an exact estimate of exactly how much it would cost, however … the broadsheet would be shorter, and I think the extra cost is justified by the service to students”. “I have been in contact with several student newspapers across the world” and some of them said “you print like a book”, she laughed. When asked about whether this could create students writing “non-stories” for the sake of satisfying the weekly newspaper, Alderson argued that it “makes more sense to shorten it so students can really engage with stories one at a time”, than to have “staggered stories”, or all the month’s stories in one issue. Alderson plans to have “staggered” pitches to help achieve this.
When asked about future funding and future advertisements for UT, Alderson replied that “we have always had advertisements”, but that “each issue would probably have advertising” under her editorship, although they would “not necessarily [be] full page ads”. She is also in favour of having a “sponsored competition within the newspaper”.
Alderson also promises “that if over 50 per cent of Masthead members of the University Times ask me to resign, I would do so immediately”. She comments that the mechanisms in place for outing a sitting officer are not good, especially since the last Comhairle is in April, and officers work until July. She describes this as a “grey area”.
When asked about why she thinks the Irish language is so important, Alderson cites that under her Deputy Editorship there has been “increased articles written in Irish by 40% and 67% on Instagram”. She also has a 600-day Duolingo streak in Irish. She talks about how Irish is a language which was “taken away and destroyed”, and the revival of Irish is part of “the decolonisation of Ireland”: “accommodating for that”, she says, “is important”.
We asked Alderson about her views on artificial intelligence tools being used in journalism. She commented that UT “prohibits the use of AI. Otter AI [a note taking tool] … is the only one used, in tandem with journalists’ own notes”; “every article is checked” for AI. For her, AI in general “does not have a place in student journalism”: using AI is “not learning skills”.
She says that student journalism is her favourite type of media at the moment because she has seen people grow from “being nervous into being really confident”. “Seeing people getting excited, and reporting on things is amazing.” Alderson called herself a “news junkie”. The US, she said, “is turning into a police state, oligarchy situation and … there are a lot of really good investigations taking place.”
Regarding the hosting of UT events, Alderson said that “this year we have already had launch parties”, and that she would like “more social events … mini journalism schools” and “having a dedicated events person like every other society” to make this work.
When asked about votes for RON, Alderson responded: “I’ll say this, anyone who feels strongly enough to vote for RON should write for UT, and bring their unique perspective.”
She finished the interview by saying: “UT is for you, it is for everybody”.
Other policies in Alderson’s manifesto include hiring an executive committee and welfare officer, increasing accessibility to the organisation, increasing the diversity of content in general and implementing a letter to the editor section.
