This last issue of the newspaper has snuck up on me like it does every year; between end-of-year events and final assignments, it’s easy to forget that once I submit this layout to the printer, I’m done for the school year. What’s new about this year for me, though, is that there is no “until next year”; after serving as an editor for four years, my time at The Waltonian has come to a close.
For the seniors graduating alongside me, you know full well what The Waltonian’s growth has looked like these past four years, perhaps most of all because you might not remember it at all from our freshman year. What has now become a hub of student creativity and conversation was once an almost-defunct college publication. While I’m proud of what I’ve been able to contribute to the newspaper, I’m more proud of what it has done within and alongside Eastern’s community.
It’s no secret that journalism is facing a public crisis of funding, trust and reliability. Tell me, when was the last time you read a full article (outside of The Waltonian, of course)? What news organizations do you follow? And by “follow”, I mean more than just read the headline posts on Instagram. Where do you get your news? Is that a question you think about? I’m quite embarrassed to admit that, even as a journalist, it’s not one I think about enough either.
So, we can all quite easily agree that journalism is facing a crisis. Obviously, as someone who spent four years preparing for this trade, I’m worried about it. But I’m worried about this as more than just a “job market” thing. By trade, I am a journalist. But by vocation, I am a cultivator of human care and connection, and because of that, I’m worried about our community.
The Waltonian’s growing success is great from a numbers perspective; not to brag, but we’ve more than tripled the size of our newsroom, doubled our online following, won three awards with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association and fundraised over $8,000. What I’ve been more proud of, though, is the way our community is learning to listen to each other and build connections.
While I think The Waltonian’s growth has impacted our community engagement, I also believe our growth would have been impossible without students who care about their community; the two are inextricably linked. I’ve been thrilled to see the growing success of organizations like ACU and the Black Student Union, watch YACHT club come back to life under passionate leadership and see our Student Government continue to refine itself to meet our student needs. I’ve appreciated every single professor who has sat down with me and helped me figure out how to navigate this world as a young person, and the input of our school’s administrative leaders whenever new policies or changes come to our students. You see, part of journalism’s mission is to facilitate conversation and change, and no amount of stellar reporting can do that if the community does not care to thrive.
My main goal of this farewell letter is to implore you all, for as long as you are here, to be committed to this place and its people. Care about the place you are in and what will happen to it when you leave. Take advantage of every opportunity it offers you, and as much as possible, lay down in front of others everything you can to help this community thrive. My bias is to tell you all to work for this publication because I know what it can offer and what it can do, but because I care more about how this community thrives, I’m telling you to just go do something and do it as well as you can.
At this university, we are given so many opportunities to thrive, and it’s not just because we have great resources. In fact, there’s an odd benefit to stepping into places with no resources; learning how to make something grow, having permission to do something badly… these are necessary for our growth. Remember, we are students. Perfection isn’t expected of us. We are expected to learn, and I beg all of you to take advantage of this grace while it is given to us.
I wish I could tell you that everyone will care about your growth when you leave here, but I cannot promise that. My fellow seniors know full well that part of the atrocity of this job market is the expectation of immediate perfection and self-driven growth. I believe our generation can change this culture, but it’s not something we’ll magically figure out. If we don’t take the time now to learn how to care for the cultivation of the human souls around us, we will drown in the quarterly review progress checks of our current environment.
So. I think you should read our little newspaper, even all of the bad articles we put out. I think we should get better at saying “I think this could be better, can we revise it?” or “This has asked something new of me, can we talk about how to do it?” I think you should take advantage of the wisdom of our professors, especially the ones who aren’t in your department, or the seemingly infinite access to research we have through databases you only get access to as a college student. I think we should attend more of our athletic events because we care about the people on the team and not because we’re sports fans. I think we should create anything we can from anyone willing to teach us how to do it, and that we should create these things in community. Bring your friends with you when you go somewhere new. Learn to care about this little world and all it is trying to do. Connect our resources together once more. Get out of the silo of your particular focus at college and collaborate with others to create something new or, even better, to fill a long-standing need.
I believe that our community has far more power for change than we realize, and I’m sad to be leaving it so soon. I’m going to miss this newspaper and this place, but the nature of student newspapers is this change. I’m not planning to leave a legacy (in four years, the names I have worked hard to remember will be forgotten in our newsroom), but I hope that I have been part of good work that will be chosen and made better by the people who step in after me. At the end of the day, I am honored to have grown from this little place, and I hope that you, no matter where you are or where you will go, will choose to grow with those around you too.
