Dear Fellow Members of the St. Lawrence Community,

I want to take this time to introduce myself to you all and express openly what my vision for The Hill News is going forward. This semester, I am beginning my tenure as Editor-in-Chief, and I hope to bring you the highest quality content possible during that time.

As a sophomore, I joined The Hill News staff as both a writer and a Digital Editor. While I enjoyed my work in both positions, I found my role on the editorial staff most fulfilling. I got to learn about the behind the scenes work that editors do, and exactly what goes in to producing each issue of The Hill News. This gave me a tremendous appreciation for the work that is done here and helped me realize just how much I wanted to be a part of it.

As Digital Editor, I was tasked with managing our website and social media, two areas where we have a lot of room to grow. Our website has often been treated as a lesser aspect of our production, with the physical paper being our focus. However, as the internet continues to grow as the main way people get their news, I feel it is time for The Hill News to adapt to the times as well.

This is one of my main objectives as Editor-In-Chief. I want to bring The Hill News up to speed with the technological age of media we currently live in. This includes building our website into not only a place for articles, but also making it a home for a variety of other content. A similar avenue is possible on social media as well. Content and consumption have changed, as traditional newspapers are being displaced by online articles, blogs, and video networks. While our reach is still relatively small, there is plenty of room for us to develop into a news organization that reflects the landscape of today’s news world.

My second goal for The Hill News is to make it a paper for everybody on campus. I firmly believe in the role of media in bringing honest, truthful and relevant stories to the broader public. However, I also recognize that there are people on campus who feel that their voice is not heard. As a student-run newspaper, I feel that it is part of our job to give all students an outlet for them to express themselves with.

I recognize that our editorial and writing staff is not incredibly diverse, and I understand that some students may feel that they cannot come to us with their stories or experiences. I want to publicly dispel that here. If you have a story or perspective you want to share with us, or an event that you would like us to cover, we are looking to work with you. The Hill News should reflect the students of St. Lawrence University, and should be about the issues that matter to you. As much as we do as editors of the paper, we rely on the students here even more to tell us what they care about, what they want to read and what they think.

I know these are somewhat lofty goals, but I feel that they are also very attainable. I am hoping to use my position with the paper to elevate voices which have previously not been heard across campus, and with the growth of our online readership, these new perspectives will echo far beyond the boundaries of St. Lawrence University. I welcome all students or organizations interested in working with The Hill News to reach out to us, and hopefully we will be able to work together to make this paper one which truly represents the student body.