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Today, we put out the best issue of @wesleyanargus I’ve ever seen. I could talk abstractly about why it’s as good as it is, but first I just want to tell you about the articles we published. (Strap in, there’s gonna be a lot of them.)
Sasha and Kaye took a long look at Wes's relationship with Traverse Square, the subsidized housing complex next to LoRise. Two weeks ago, LoRise students called PSafe after one of them was shot with a BB gun, who in turn called the police on the minors. https://tinyurl.com/su2hr4a
It prompted Wesleyan to reckon with its relationship with Middletown. And Claire had great coverage of a town hall this past Wednesday that was devoted to discussing those very dynamics. http://wesleyanargus.com/2019/11/22/reslife-organizes-town-hall-on-traverse-square-relations/
While Wes's acceptance rate has gone down, we don’t always realize what’s changed (and what’s stayed the same) about our admitted students. Spencer dug into a decade of data to find out more about financial aid, racial and gender disparities, and more. http://wesleyanargus.com/2019/11/22/what-a-decade-of-data-tells-us-about-wesleyans-declining-acceptance-rate/
President Roth took students’ questions at the WSA meeting last Sunday, covering everything from divesting from fossil fuels to now-Middletown mayor Ben Florsheim ’14 to his own salary. Read Jocelyn’s coverage here: http://wesleyanargus.com/2019/11/22/roth-joins-wsa-for-open-qa-forum/.
Middletown has a new smoothie spot—and it’s a distributor for the controversial multi-level marketing company Herbalife. Jane came through with a thoughtful piece on both the store’s opening and Herbalife’s past. http://wesleyanargus.com/2019/11/22/the-nutrition-spot-herbalife-retailer-comes-to-middletown/
Argus editor and USLAC member Dani went back into the Argives to write about the 2012-2013 contracting change for the University’s custodial work, bringing the recent history into students’ demands for five more custodians to be hired. http://wesleyanargus.com/2019/11/22/into-the-argives-janitorial-labor-movements-at-wesleyan-in-2012-and-2013/
And finally, @nathanpugh_3 wrote a truly incredible piece about working on “The Laramie Project”—and how Matthew Shepard’s story can’t be the only story for the LGBTQ community. Please, please, give it a read. http://wesleyanargus.com/2019/11/22/matthew-shepards-story-deserves-to-be-told-but-it-cant-be-the-only-story-for-the-lgbtq-community/
There’s even more that I haven’t linked to here, like Ashley’s coverage of the Trans Day of Remembrance talk and Tara’s “In the Heights” writeup. They are some of the best and thoughtful examples of event coverage I can find from this semester.
Anyone who’s worked with me knows I have high standards—probably too high—and I can’t tell you a single thing that I would change about today's articles. I'm overwhelmed with my pride in this group that I’ve had the absurd luck to lead these past few months with @spacelover20.
The growth that I’ve seen over this semester—never mind my time at Wesleyan—has awed me. This careful coverage is why I’m a part of The Argus.
This is why I’ve spent my years at Wesleyan holed up in an office with rapidly degrading furniture—and not just for the articles themselves but for the people who want to write them.
But, amid all of this, there are members of the Argus team that get lost. The editors who guide these wonderful pieces and make them stronger. The photographers who bring our words to life...
The copy editors and layout editors who have to stay late into the night when we have issues like this, who we very seriously could not function without. Each of these groups is marvelous, and doesn’t get acknowledged enough.
Some of us are going abroad, some of us are graduating in the spring, one of us is even graduating this fall. But The Argus isn’t leaving.
Over the last few years, this paper has evolved in ways that I could’ve never imagined as a freshman. And we still have a lot of work to do, but this is a pretty marvelous start.
