Letter From the Editors: Our Nights at the Newsroom

Dear Reader,

If you’re ever at the Argus office on a Thursday evening, you’d likely hear someone shout “You’re all FAKE NEWS!” at us from the hallway connected to WESU. This is one of the general managers from WESU Radio, among the many people we count on seeing during our production hours twice a week. 

Although meant as a joke, sometimes we think about how student journalism really does straddle the line between “fake news” and “real reporting.” Largely unpaid and volunteer-led, The Argus produces almost definitively interest-based news coverage—we are as constrained as you’d expect a student newsroom to be. 

But still, we found countless moments where people surprised us with their tenacity, diligence, and care this semester. And all the same, we hope that we surprise you sometimes, too. 

One production, while editing for grammar and stylistic accuracy, a copy editor caught structural errors in a news article that had slipped past us and many other editors. While laying out the print edition in Adobe InDesign, one of our layout editors added crucial historical context to a Features piece. Truly no role is more important than another, and no masthead member confines themselves to one.

We’ve recently started playing music in the newsroom—when it gets late enough, Janhavi’s playlist of Arabic medleys—that’s really intended for the stairmaster—resounds in our office. Sometimes, if no one adds to the queue, we’re left with Peyton’s unending Noah Kahan playlist instead. And if no one bothers to change the queue, you can take that as an indicator that everyone’s locked in.

There have been nights when we both ran back to the office at 3 a.m. after noticing corrections that needed to be made before the issue went to print; the nights are long and we know it. And yet, we keep coming back.

Sometimes after bar night, one of our Executive Editors drops by the office, knowing we’re likely still there. We remember him asking one particular night, “and how were section check-ins?” There was something so grandfatherish about his soft inquiry.

Many (if not most) nights, Janhavi will spend precious time that should be used headlining to look back at the posters of former Argus leadership peering from the office walls. Dozens of Argus alumni plaster the walls—across Features, News, Opinions, Executive Editors, Web Editors, Finance—going all the way back to the early 2000s. She will frown at the smiling faces. Having worked with former Editors-in-Chief as Managing Editor last fall, she still has not found a way to reckon with all the wonder that comes with the paper’s recent and ancient history.

Having served as either Head Layout Editor or Production Manager for the previous four semesters, Peyton has been no stranger to late nights at the paper with our predecessors. There’s something special about seeing the touch each editor brings to the paper, whether that’s an endlessly thorough, copy-style reading of the entire paper before it goes to print, or a remarkable dedication to refining headlines until they’re the best they could possibly be. Seeing how their respective backgrounds—Copy, News, Arts, Features, Layout, Opinion—tie in to their approaches to editing is a constant reminder of the diverse work done by our writers and editors. Peyton will always be in awe of how it all comes together to make one final product.

We’re both keenly aware that the paper will be more a part of our lives than we have been a part of its life. We have had the honor of serving as the 178th Editors-in-Chief of The Wesleyan Argus. Our takeaways from this term? Count on each other, always. 

Peyton counts on The Argus to talk them into breaking layout sizing and spacing rules. Janhavi counts on The Argus to talk her out of using subheadings for any given piece. Our editors count on us to revise many of the ledes they write, and incoming writers count on editors to give any given article more than one revision. 

As our readers, we hope you’ve counted on us to keep you informed.

Throughout this semester, our masthead published 268 articles across 22 issues of The Argus. We’ve expanded our coverage of crime, campus athletics, student productions, cultural clubs, talks on democracy, University-Middletown collaborative initiatives, Middletown goings-on, science and research, student politics, and all that makes Wesleyan the space it is. As several of our writers keep telling us: “Keep Wes Weird.”

Our campus athletics coverage has regularly highlighted Players of the Week and the Cards’ performances across an array of sports, and our Opinion section has continued to give the best argumentative form to student opinion—political and otherwise. 

As former photo editors (once upon a time) we’ve been relieved to watch the section take flight once again, this time with actual photographers at the helm.

We’re especially proud of the investigative work our masthead has taken on this semester, across many of our sections. In March, we published an investigative piece unraveling longstanding patterns of harmful workplace dynamics and remarkable turnover at the University’s Office of Admissions. We also reported on the University’s history of communication problems with third-party contractors. More recently, our reporters spotlighted the wrongful termination of custodian Victor Rosario and uncovered workplace standards for custodial workers on campus. Coming to the end of the semester, one of our Sports Editors wrote a long-form investigative piece on the untold realities of student athletics on campus.

As proud and excited as we are, we count on you all—our readers—to hold us accountable, too, even if it’s via jocular reminders like “You’re all FAKE NEWS!”

We both attended the same 8:50 a.m. class on Tuesdays, after Monday production nights: “Media and Politics.” Though we’re often bleary-eyed and weary, a particular reading we discussed one morning struck a chord—Walter Lippman described the state of journalism as a flashlight as opposed to a mirror.

We, too, find ourselves to be but a flashlight. Even at a university like Wesleyan, The Argus can only be in so many places at once. As we strive to strike a balance and provide additional perspective to campus and local events, we recognize that our coverage still has gaps and we depend on you all to check us in turn. 

We’re proud to welcome Louis Chiasson ’28 and Julia Podgorski ’28 as the incoming Editors-in-Chief, who currently serve as an Arts & Culture Editor (as well as Distribution and Community Manager) and one of our Opinion Editors, respectively. They will be joined by incoming Managing Editor Anabel Goode ’27, a current News Editor. As we move into our new roles as Executive Editors, we’re looking forward to continuing reporting, helping with the paper’s layout,  supporting future leadership in any way we can—and having a life again.

In one of our end-of-year conversations, one of our editors made an offhand remark about recruitment for the fall.

“I think people here stay for the people.” 

We imagine that’ll continue to be true for the years to come. 

With love and relief,

Peyton De Winter & Janhavi Munde

Editors-in-Chief