To the AU community: As the school year winds down and seniors prepare for life beyond AU, other students prepare for their own adjustments as they step into new leadership positions. The Eagle staff is itself in the midst of an annual transition, as older, experienced members relinquish to new editors the responsibility, stress and satisfaction that come with producing a newspaper. This edition of The Eagle is the second product completed by the new staff. As the editor in chief for the 2004-2005 academic year, I look forward to working with this talented group to create a more relevant, balanced, accurate and interesting newspaper for the AU community.
Since 1925, The Eagle staff has aimed to provide the AU community with a reliable and noteworthy news source. Since I arrived at AU and began working on The Eagle in 2001, the staff has taken great strides by becoming fully independent of any AU institution or group and by increasing production frequency to twice per week. This fall, as managing editor for arts and features, I had the privilege of working side by side with editor in chief Mackenzie Ryan and other hardworking student journalists as we launched a new Web site and made the step to include both news and entertainment articles every Monday and Thursday. This semester, from my current AU Abroad location in Prague, I was excited to keep in touch with staff members as the newspaper began featuring front pages in color.
Next year, I hope a broader population of AU will rely on The Eagle for the best reporting on issues affecting our community, as The Eagle staff will work to produce more diverse, relevant and comprehensive coverage.
Although the transition to a new staff is taking place while I am abroad, I have worked with many of the editors for years and I'm confident that with their experience and support The Eagle will not fail to provide AU with a quality newspaper.
Also, Keith F. Shovlin, as interim editor in chief, will help to lead the staff with Mackenzie Ryan's guidance until I return to D.C. in June. Keith has fully dedicated himself to The Eagle staff since he transferred to AU last year. He has perfected his journalism and leadership skills this year as managing editor for news, and I have no doubt that he will continue to be an asset as he helps the staff members transition into their new roles.
The Eagle's new staff is enthusiastic and well prepared to enhance the newspaper. I am already collaborating with editors on many ideas for improvement, including the following priorities: Increasing communication with and coverage of more groups and individuals in the AU community.
Creating more professional, dynamic and visually appealing layout designs, graphics and photographs for the print editions of The Eagle.
Further utilizing the Web site to quickly provide information on breaking news to be followed by in-depth reporting on the issue in the print edition.
Covering more District issues that affect AU, such as parking, transportation and housing costs, medical care or Metropolitan Police Department actions.
Reporting on a greater variety of entertainment genres, trends and events.
Revitalizing every section to make it more informative and interesting to readers.
As we strive to advance The Eagle, input and criticism from all members of the AU community are always welcome and encouraged. If anyone has any questions or comments about the newspaper, please feel free to e-mail me at anne.godlasky@american.edu, and I will address your concerns as soon as possible.
I look forward to communicating with students, faculty and staff in the next year as the editors and I devote countless hours to help The Eagle evolve into a better news source that I hope will serve every member of our community.
Thank you.
