As you may have noticed there have been quite a few changes to the Beacon editorial staff this year. Between graduations, people coming back from other countries and people stepping down to focus on other priorities, there have been quite a few changes.
How have these changes impacted the Beacon? How do experienced members of the beacon staff feel about these changes?
If you look on the back of your weekly Beacon issues, you will see the names of the Beacon staff. All but three of these editors are new faces this year.
Two of these experienced editors, Tabitha Thatcher, and Rose Hoogers both studied abroad last semester, and so had to find someone to take their place. So, when they returned, it was to a whole host of new faces.
Senior Tabitha Thatcher has been an editor at the Beacon for two years and takes an optimistic view of these new changes, “I think it’s really exciting having new people at the Beacon. We had a lot of seniors last year, and it’ is so different having editors who are freshmen and sophomores because they just see Northwestern differently.”
Thatcher’s fellow senior Rose Hoogers who has also been an editor at the Beacon for two years in a couple different positions, stated that the only editor that has been around longer than her is Collin Verschoor, the copy editor and the one in charge of managing all of the advertisements.
A few of these new editors are Abby Bram, editor of the features section, Evelyn Crouch, editor of the opinions section, and Ashton Hughes, the sports section editor.
Each of these editors has the job of coming up with ideas for articles at each weekly Beacon meeting for their sections, with the help of the co-editors in chief, Rose Hoogers and Kara Follett. They then find writers for each of their articles, and once their writers submit their articles, the editors read through and edit them. Another new face to the Beacon is Kyria Anders who finds photos for each issue.
On Thursdays, the Beacon staff has their layout meeting where all of the articles get arranged into the beautiful format you see them in now. They do their work for a total of six hours a week in the Beacon Lab in the basement of North Suites. Hoogers and Verschoor are in charge of editing the articles one last time before they are set in their final format and printed.
The comical appeal of working for the Beacon is the traditional meal of pizza that the Beacon staff gets during their layout meetings. It is for this reason and many more that Thatcher states that she thinks that the Beacon might be one of the best jobs on campus.
The Beacon stands out as a very positive experience to all those involved, but it is also an undervalued and unseen one. Unfortunately, many students at NW do not take the time to read the Beacon or are even aware of its existence.
Could these changes that the Beacon is experiencing affect this?
Maybe this wave of new staff, and thus new ideas and experiences, will push the Beacon to new heights among students.
While it is too early to tell whether these changes will affect the Beacon positively or negatively, both Hoogers and Thatcher expressed that they thought these changes were “exciting” and they have enjoyed seeing the article ideas that the new editors come up with.
Photo submitted.
