Dear Argus readers, 

It’s been a semester, but we’re still here! For students and student journalists alike, each semester during the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging in its own way, and this one has been no exception: the demands of returning to mostly in-person classes, obligations, and social schedules while cases rise and fall (sometimes within the same week) has taken a toll on The Argus staff and the campus community at large. The joy of gathering once more is coupled with the lingering emotional effects of a pandemic that is very much ongoing. 

Amid challenges, as always, we are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished at The Argus this semester. Over 14 weeks, we have published 22 issues and 232 pages. We’ve covered big news like the Butterfields flood, the Public Affairs Center and Art Gallery construction project (and student feelings on the construction), and the end of the Middletown Inn’s contract with The University. We’ve investigated campus-wide issues such as threats of a WesAdmits shutdown, Jewish student’s response to Rosh Hashana being held on the first day of classes, and how lab courses have been operating COVID-safely. We chronicled women’s soccer’s historic season as they competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament for the first time, and dove into the association’s new name, image, and likenesses (NIL) policy. Our arts team explored “Behind Enemy Lines” and “The Language in Common” exhibits at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, and profiled a number of artists on and off-campus. We also had personal essay and opinion pieces on navigating campus as a freshman, (and as a junior), travelling during COVID-19,  and why the Center for the Arts is worthy of its place on campus. We also ran a successful T-shirt campaign, which raised over $600 to support our student workers, and hired two new fellows through our Voices Fund. 

Coming in at the beginning of the semester, our top priority was to cultivate a community where everyone felt welcomed and appreciated, and we are proud of the work that we put in to achieve this goal. We are also proud of our staff, for bearing with us as we navigated publishing twice a week for the first time since Spring 2020. Our return to biweekly would not have been possible without the work of our writers, editors, photo editors, layout staff, financial manager, web manager, and distribution manager.

We are thrilled to see what the future holds for The Argus under the leadership of incoming Editors-in-Chief Oliver Cope ’23 and Jiyu Shin ’23. We cannot think of better people to take The Argus into 2022! However, know that we will all be on a (well-deserved) break until the spring semester begins.

You’ll hear from us one last time this weekend for the last newsletter of 2021. 

Until then, 

Hannah and Emma