The Oswegonian is actually running full meetings inside our humble but spacious 600 square foot Marano Campus Center office once again. A statement that has not been uttered since March 2020. This column is not about COVID-19 and the effects it has had on college students and leaders here at SUNY Oswego, instead this is about what the next year could potentially hold as I see it from my Editor-in-Chief chair.
My story has been told before, and I have been anxiously waiting to sit in this chair for two years. Now that it is here, I realize what a gift the present is for journalists. This week was the first normal week The Oswegonian has had in a long time. There is not one member on the staff from March 2020 that is still on the staff now, I am one of the few writers left.
So, The Oswegonian has flipped the page of its long 86-year history to a new chapter, featuring a staff that has been itching to be in the positions they now hold. The integrity, passion and effort for journalism they hold is what makes this year full of potential. Using lessons learned from past mentors and the standard passed down from last year’s staff, the paper will strive for excellence each week.
That is just talk at the moment, though, my vision is that it becomes reality. The 20 issues of The Oswegonian this year will decide if I am right or wrong. You, the reader, hold the ultimate control.
The student-run newspaper is finally feeling the effects of what so many other newspapers around the country have felt in past years: a shrinking budget and a new realization from some that the Oswegonian in theory could just be published online. That is why there are six less issues from previous years and a pressure to make every single one of them count. It is our bid to make sure the people who do our budget understand the importance of this club to student journalists and the community it serves.
In the meantime, there is laughter and friendship developing in the office again. The staff has already seen my tendency to swear while I am stressed, so now we have the swear pizza pie template, like a swear jar, sitting behind my desk. Every 25 times I swear this semester, the entire staff will get a pizza.
The little things like that are what makes the return to being in-person special. The newspaper functioned fine with us at a distance last year but lacked those moments. It allows for a simulation of a real job with multiple members of the staff working together as a team to accomplish the publication of the paper.
The excitement of campus being back fully in-person allows for all of this. Soon, hockey games will be back in the Marano Campus Center Arena and the wicked wind off Lake Ontario will make for chilly and eventful walks throughout campus. The different clubs around campus will be allowed to have the previous impact they had on students.
That is the view from my seat, one last opportunity for me to experience it all in front of me. The Oswegonian will continue long after me, but the gift of the present is having the opportunity to experience the academic year and this beautiful campus.
