Dear Wesleyan community,

At the beginning of the semester, we shared some of the steps we’ve taken to become a more equitable, accountable publication. As this semester comes to a close, we wanted to provide an update on the work we have been doing to further this goal.

Midway through the spring, we met with other publications on campus (with the organizational help of The Artifex’s Ginger Hutchinson ’20) to discuss the role of student publications in maintaining an environment that promotes restorative justice and uplifts and prioritizes the voices of survivors of sexual assault. With this goal in mind, we are introducing a Community Manager position to our staff this fall. The two people serving in this role will be outlets through which students (both those on our staff and other community members) can negotiate workplace conflicts and report issues of discrimination and sexual harassment/assault. We will be announcing and publicizing the Community Managers this coming fall after they are elected by the staff. We are also enforcing a new set of Community Guidelines for all staff members starting this fall in order to maintain a respectful and safe office environment. Through these developments, we hope to create a space in which all students can feel safe and comfortable contributing to the paper.

Throughout our time as editors, we have been reflecting on the role of student journalism on this campus. Whether it be covering labor protests or theater productions, The Argus is committed to honesty, transparency, and diligence in following stories that need to be told. Obviously, we are full-time students and fallible human beings, and we cannot extract ourselves from the community we are covering. We can only hope to recognize what works and learn and grow from what doesn’t. We encourage a dialogue between The Argus and the student body at large, keeping in mind that The Argus is not a faceless institution but a group of committed individuals who involve themselves in many different areas of campus. In that way, The Argus can be malleable and capable of change even with the knowledge that we are, like the University itself, a historically white and male space.

We recognize the power of stories to shape our understandings of our community. By telling these stories about both the Wesleyan community and our Argus community, we hope to continue our work making The Argus a more equitable place where anyone in the Wesleyan community can learn about producing a newspaper.

We wish everyone the best as classes end and exams begin! Be on the lookout for updates on our website and social media accounts this summer, and look forward to welcoming Emmy Hughes ’20 and Hannah Reale ’20 to the EIC position next semester.

Sincerely,

William Halliday

Brooke Kushwaha