Every Tuesday night at 8:15 p.m. for the last four academic years, I’ve packed into a classroom with dozens of other Eagle staff members. Our editorial board meetings are one of the more interesting enduring traditions we’ve held through our 100-year history. I confess that as a newly minted staff writer my freshman year, I didn’t understand the value of having our staff talk about the news we’d just reported that week.
After years of participation, and now a year of leading these meetings, I’ve come to look forward to them. I now see how impactful it is to have a cross-section of the University community discuss the issues confronting our campus. In watching various topics unfold through our coverage — from arming campus police to integrating AI — I’ve gained a greater appreciation for how journalism shapes dialogue.
This edition of The Eagle’s print magazine picks up on those themes. Our cover story, “Racing to Rebrand,” investigates the changes across campus that aim to define our university for the coming years. Eagle reporters set out to discover whose voices are informing those decisions and what we know about the trajectory of American University.
While these conversations are taking place, there are events occurring across the country that signal a worsening information ecosystem. Just this semester, The Washington Post laid off an unprecedented number of its journalists and massively shrunk its Metro desk. From the perspective of our paper, the local coverage we provide to Tenleytown and Friendship Heights is more important than ever. Even further, the role we play in combating misinformation and disinformation on campus is increasingly vital.
The state of journalism can be daunting in the face of looming graduation. Yet, the commitment I’ve observed in our editorial board meetings to engage, even when difficult or uncomfortable, has assured me journalists will always have people to write for.
I would be remiss to close this letter without thanking our partners in student media for their equal role in keeping the campus community informed. Thank you to AWOL Editor-in-chief Caleb Ogilvie and former Editor-in-chief Kalie Walker for working with me to interrogate information sharing systems on our campus.
Thank you to my amazing editors: Payton Anderson, Isabella Polak, Avery Grossman, Mariana Caraballo, Ridha Rayani, Gavin O’Malley, Addie DiPaolo, Jack Stashower and Jessica Ackerman. They are the dedicated minds that keep this paper running, along with our incoming Editor-in-chief Gabrielle McNamee, whose energy and dedication will drive The Eagle to new successes.
I want to be sure to thank Wendy Melillo, Amy Eisman, John Watson, Terry Bryant, The Eagle’s advisory board and the many Eagle editors who’ve guided me through the years.
In a few weeks I will graduate as a journalist and leader who was shaped by The Eagle more than anything else. It’s been an indescribable honor to know this paper and community as I’ve known it.
At the risk of sounding generic, it really has been a blast.
Thank you for everything.
Copy editing done by Avery Grossman.
editor@theeagleonline.com
