Washington University is not alone in celebrating an anniversary this year. As the University celebrates its sesquicentennial, Student Life is celebrating its 125th anniversary. As we celebrate our common anniversaries, Student Life shares in the slogan the University has chosen for the sesquicentennial, “Celebrating the past, shaping the future.”
Alumni who have worked for the paper over the years will be returning to campus from September 12-14 to celebrate the highlights of Student Life’s rich history of serving the campus’ readers. Our readers are invited to join us in celebrating our anniversary at a panel discussion featuring Student Life alumni who have become high-profile journalists on Saturday, September 13th in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge from 12-1:30 p.m.
More important, however, than joining us to celebrate our past, is joining us in a conversation on how we can better serve our readers and shape the future of Student Life. Your first opportunity to engage in this conversation will be at our “How to Use Student Life” forums, which will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 10 and Monday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. in the Gargoyle. You can meet our editors, learn how to go about getting coverage of events and issues affecting you on campus, and discuss with us how we can better serve your needs as a reader at these meetings. If you have questions about these forums, you can contact me at [email protected]
You may also have the opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions with our editors that we’ll be hosting throughout the semester. If you would like to be a part of one of these focus groups, or have particular questions, comments, or concerns concerning our paper, please contact me. We have not scheduled these events yet, but as we do we’ll try our best to incorporate your interests.
Meanwhile, we’ve already begun to talk amongst ourselves about ways we can better serve our readers, a conversation that has produced many exciting changes in Student Life.
First, you’ll notice that we’re now publishing three days a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. To make this change possible, we have incorporated Cadenza, our arts and entertainment coverage, as a section in our regular paper. Cadenza also will include expanded feature coverage. You can contact our Cadenza editor, Travis Petersen, at [email protected], or our features editor, Laura Vilines, at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns.
The paper and our web site also have a new look. You’ll notice that both our print and online editions have crisper, more modern designs. If you have suggestions as to how we can continue to tweak our look to make ourselves more reader-friendly, please email your comments to me at [email protected].
You might also notice another major change to our paper: the change of our opinion section’s name. That section is now called Forum to reflect the open dialogue that we aim to have with our readers. All are welcome to share their views on our pages. Letters to the editor should be no more than 350 words, and op-ed columns should be between 600-750 words. To submit a letter to the editor e-mail [email protected], and e-mail [email protected] to submit an op-ed column.
Other new features are also included throughout the pages of our paper. One of the most exciting new elements is an expanded calendar, which you can find just before our classified ad page. We hope this calendar grows to include all events that occur on our campus. To submit an event, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.studlife.com/calendar.
In addition, throughout the next several weeks we’ll be trying out new feature elements on page two, as well as other elements, like Word on the Street, on the Forum pages. We’d love to hear your comments on these features, as well as suggestions for other feature elements you’d like to see in our paper.
Last, I want to introduce you to a policy change at Student Life. To better communicate our commitment to ethical journalism and our readers, we’ve adopted the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics as this paper’s guiding principles. You can access the Code through our Web page. If you have any questions or comments regarding the Code, or if you believe we are not living up to our commitment, please e-mail me at [email protected].
Thank you all for your readership over the past 125 years and your continued support in the future. It’s a privilege to be a part of the University community, and it is our commitment to continually strive to better serve the community’s needs.