In the endless forums, e-mails, columns and Simpsonian articles regarding the new curriculum, there’s one thing that’s missing: what’s going to happen to the practicums?

I’m not versed in any practicum plans on campus other than that of the campus medium—but for all of you reading this, it should be important to you. Currently, the staff writers for The Simp obtain only one credit hour per semester of work, and the editors receive two credit hours per semester.

While The Simp isn’t perfect, by any means, the writers and editors put hour after hour in on the paper between running interviews and layout. On any given Monday night, you’ll see four to six editors in The Simp lab until midnight or so, trying to crank out articles, headlines, captions and a layout out so that a paper can go out weekly.

Taking into consideration office hours, phone calls, e-mails, crisis intervention, editing section stories and then editing pages—the editors who take their positions seriously easily put in 15-20 hours a week. It’s a lot of work, for virtually no credit.

But now, we are vindicated. And by we, I mean the entire student body, staff, and faculty who read The Simp on a weekly basis.

It is my knowledge (and I am human, so I could be wrong) that the practicum for The Simp will be changing alongside with the curriculum. Beginning in the fall of 2011, writers will now receive two credits and editors will receive four credits.

I think it’s a fair argument to make that the editors, and even some of the devout writers, put in more work for their one or two credits than they do for their three credit courses. That’s not to say that The Simp is more important to the student, but rather, more demanding.

While I understand that it’s quite the process to have credit hours changed (between proposing it, having it approved by the faculty, so on and so forth) but I wish that the increased credit hours would have been implemented years ago—so as to draw more students in and allow The Simp to have the full staff it deserves.

So, thank you Simpson College for acknowledging the amount of work that students are putting forth to get a paper out every week, and rewarding us for that hard work. I sincerely hope that this results in a larger staff and that The Simp will be better than ever.

So students, if you’ve ever wanted to check out The Simp and are turned off by only one credit, don’t give up—come back in the fall of 2011, and get a hands-on experience that is truly invaluable.