I’m beginning to write this at 3 a.m., which many people here at OU Daily will tell you is a likely place for me to be. Many of my days as both a news reporter and videographer have led me to late nights staring at my computer screen trying to get those last few paragraphs in or trying to cut video clips in such a way it syncs with the music.
As I now sit to write this senior column in full, I find myself struggling to find the words I want. Normally I’m actually quite verbose — with a vocabulary bank to match — but I find myself at a loss. I don’t think words alone can express how this place has impacted my life, but I’d like to try.
I’m a broadcast journalism major, so OU Daily wasn’t really my space, per se. At the time of my freshman year, the divide between OU Daily and OU Nightly was incredibly distinct; print students went to the former and broadcast students went to the latter.
I felt like I was stuck. By the time I was a sophomore, I had felt like I was behind because I wasn’t involved in either. OU Nightly didn’t fit into my schedule and, at the time, OU Daily was out of the question. Why would they want a broadcast student?
However, my friends, Silas Bales and Alexia Aston, who both worked for OU Daily at the time and have become some of my best friends since, had other plans. They quite literally dragged me into the newsroom to meet everyone because they assured me I could contribute despite never having written an article in my life.
Kaly and her roommates: Silas Bales, Alexia Aston, Alexia's cat October, Mac Syrett and Rohit Mital. They called themselves the Millennium 5.
You don’t have to be a print student, they told me, you would be a perfect fit.
I got to spread my wings
I had an interesting start to my time here. It involved an ambulance, a broken bike and a voicemail from the newsroom adviser, Seth Prince, which sits in my inbox to this day. Honestly, though, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I would have liked to do without the heat stroke, but I’ll pick my battles where I can.
I will say, what an embarrassing way to meet both OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. and Seth, who was almost certain I wouldn’t return to work after I suffered a workplace incident my first day on the job. For the record, I showed up for my next shift and they kept me inside.
From there, I really felt like I got to spread my wings. Although I’m the video editor, I was initially a news reporter and have a Google Drive full of pieces I’ve written. I genuinely don’t think I’d be where I am today without my experience on the news desk.
My first ever beat was the Student Government Association where I’d spend my Tuesday evenings in Dale Hall with the Undergraduate Student Congress, live tweeting their meetings. I met so many amazing people and fostered the relationship between SGA and OU Daily as I reported on the beat for a full academic year, a feat I’m told no one had achieved before me, at least not in recent memory.
Kaly Phan covered OU's Student Government Association for one academic year ... and then some. She received her own name tag, the same as representatives and senators.
I even got a name tag out of it like the representatives and associates, I felt very official.
I also covered important events as a reporter such as Gov. Kevin Stitt and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ 2022 election watch parties, in-depth reporting on affirmative action, the initial invasion that incited the Russia-Ukraine war and the concerns of Russian and Ukrainian students that immediately followed.
My editors helped me come at my stories with such care and intentionality I hadn’t seen at any organization I had been at previously. It was refreshing and wonderful to witness, and I can only hope I handle stories on my own with half as much the amount of time, effort and care that I’ve seen everyone else do.
My time on the news desk has developed me into the journalist I am today, and of this I am certain. I don’t know where I’d be or who I’d be without having ever stepped foot in OU Daily’s newsroom and for that I am forever grateful.
Our hard work paid off
Similarly, my time on the video desk has been interesting.
I was asked initially to join because Seth and then-editor-in-chief Jillian Martin knew where I wanted to go in life and the video desk needed some bolstering as, at the time, it was only four people. I gladly leaped at the opportunity as I wanted to broaden my horizons past strict news packages.
I immediately started as the assistant video editor, completely bypassing the standard videographer position, and hit the ground running. I’ve learned so much about narrative editing, podcasting and video coverage since starting.
Like my time on the news desk, I’ve gotten amazing opportunities working as video editor: I went to my first football game and even went to the Alamo Bowl, I got Harroz on a TikTok, I got to shine a light on multicultural students and was deeply involved in ethical conversations on how, as an organization, we would cover the ongoing war in Gaza and the multiple pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Something else that happened in my time as editor was a unique, cross-organizational challenge: I was working for two competing groups.
I don’t make it a secret I work for OU Nightly. My schedule finally freed up my junior year and I was able to get my foot in the door. I wasn’t blind to the thinly-veiled hostility between the two organizations. There was civility and close friendships between students in each, but there was this unspoken weird spite exchanged.
Quite frankly, I think it manifested from the print versus broadcast drama that permeates journalism since most disputes between OU Nightly and OU Daily are quite petty, all things considered.
I’ve done my best to keep both priorities separate in that I tried not to let one job bleed into the other. Each place has its merits and I love being a part of both organizations in the capacities that I am, and am grateful that I can contribute at such a high level in both.
As video editor, though, I’ve tried to bridge the gap between the two organizations along with others involved in both, including two of my videographers Cassidy Martin and Aryanna Smith.
When a suspicious package was reported at Gaylord College, OU Nightly worked inside OU Daily's newsroom.
Our hard work paid off in big ways with the two newsrooms collaborating on such important events for campus such as severe weather coverage and the suspicious package reported behind Gaylord Hall, for which I helped contribute video for OU Daily and produced the OU Nightly show that same day.
Interpersonal connections started to build and now each place talks to the other, helping one another with stories and coverage. More people have even started to be a part of both organizations, contributing to everything from the video desk to the news desk.
I spent a long time in both newsrooms, trying my best to build the relationship between OU Nightly and OU Daily to where it is now. I couldn’t be more thankful to everyone who listened to my rambling and allowed me to run back and forth between both to make the collaboration we now have a reality.
It’s honestly been incredible and humbling what I’ve been a part of and been able to contribute to in my short time on the video desk as its editor. Although we are still small, I can only hope I left it in a better place than when I was initially onboarded and that they continue to grow in strength and in skill long after I’ve left. I also got to write one last piece for the news desk for the summer magazine as one final hurrah, which was quite nice.
I’m going to miss Copeland Hall
This is my fourth version of this senior column.
I genuinely have been struggling to find the words for what this place has meant to me. Even now, as I’m wrapping up, I don’t think I’ve adequately put into words what this newsroom means to me. My friends, the people I’ve met, the stories I’ve been able to tell and the places I’ve been are just a fraction of it all.
I’m still the only broadcast journalism student here, but that’s okay. That means I’m the only one of me. Though, I have to admit, I’m hoping that will change soon.
My next journey is still a bit to be determined. I’m unsure what I can and can’t announce as of now, but I can confirm I have a job lined up for me once I’ve graduated come these next few days.
Kaly Phan after covering OU football's game against West Virginia in fall 2023.
I’m going to miss Copeland Hall and I’m going to miss sitting in the newsroom. I’m going to miss my newsroom family and my weekly trips to the vending machine because I forgot my lunch. I’m going to miss late nights and early mornings to make sure we get everything just right to best serve the community. But, I can't wait to see what’s next.
Although I am choosing to pursue my post-academic career in broadcast journalism, I’m taking the long nights of Undergraduate Student Congress coverage, editing podcast audio, video footage and everything in between with me.
To whomever is reading this — whether you’re underclassmen, upperclassmen, not even in college or just about to graduate like me — I leave you this: Don’t hesitate to branch outside of your comfort zone. You may need a push, and that’s okay, but as long as you believe in yourself and you believe in your support system, you can do whatever you put your mind to. I promise.
Kaly Phan is a journalism graduate with a focus in broadcast journalism. She served as a news reporter, junior news reporter, assistant video editor and video editor at the Daily. She also works at OU Nightly as a producer. She previously interned at Bally Sports Southwest.
This story was edited by Karoline Leonard, Anusha Fathepure, Peggy Dodd and Ismael Lele. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
Read and watch some of Kaly's work
