Perhaps the coolest thing about The Stute is the creativity we can have with it. From coming up with article ideas to figuring out the layout of the paper each week, The Stute requires ingenuity from all its members. Throughout the years, we’ve amassed a large collection of staff across different years with various majors and diverse interests. Every person brings new perspectives and ideas that have improved our paper. A more extensive staff results in us producing better, more exciting, and engaging content for our readers.
I’m very proud to say that our staff has grown within the first few weeks of this fall semester. Firstly, we’ve introduced two News Editors to our staff, both of whom have only recently become more active in The Stute but have immediately shown their interest in writing and taking on a larger leadership role within the organization. We’ve also introduced a new Assistant Business Manager, who will work closely with our current Business Manager to learn the ropes behind managing our financials, budget, and outreach. Finally, we’ve more recently appointed a Sports Editor. They, along with myself, our Layout Editor, and sports writers, have spearheaded the creation of our revived Sports Section in The Stute (which you can check out on page 5 of this issue). The Stute’s sports section perished during the pandemic due to a lack of sporting events, but I’m glad to say it has made its way back into our paper. Moreover, The Stute has gained two new comic strip artists, whose work debuted in this issue of The Stute as well! Finally, The Stute has recently appointed a new Social Media Manager who will be supervising our TikTok account.
Speaking of TikTok, another one of The Stute’s goals this semester is to have more social media content; our main focus is to build a platform on newer social media apps, get more feedback from students throughout campus through social media, and also promote the process of how we put the paper together every week. Shameless plug: follow @thestute on Instagram and TikTok — I promise you that you won’t regret it!
Apart from writing and social media, we’ve had both old and new staff members interested in contributing to religious newspaper practices like creating the newspaper layout and copy editing. If you’re unfamiliar, making the newspaper layout is a precise process that requires an artistic eye and insane levels of patience. Every title, byline, photo, and ad you see in this paper is carefully placed into files created by Adobe InDesign. On the other hand, copy editing is another meticulous process that requires a good eye for catching misspellings and grammar mistakes. While both layout and copy editing can be painstaking at times, they demand creativity and when done with other people, can be a lot of fun. It’s great to see students use their skills and be active in The Stute in a way that caters to their interests.
And even beyond our staff, I like to think that The Stute is inclusive of the whole student body. Anyone can submit a Letter to the Editor or an Op-Ed to The Stute detailing their opinions about pretty much anything. Everyone has an outlet to let their voice be heard in writing! Students are also able to submit news tips/ideas through the “Submit” form on our website. Coupled with these, it’s also great to see student opinions featured in Roving Reporter each week.
The best thing about The Stute is that we have grown into one big family, and it’s great to see that the family continues to grow each year. I still have a few more months in the position of Editor in Chief, but the thought of leaving this position and passing on the mantle will be bittersweet. In a few years, our staff will be replenished with new faces, but I’m certain they will carry the same passion and excitement for growing The Stute as we do now.
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