The college’s open houses over the past two weeks have made me nostalgic for the time when I was a prospie. I guess you can chalk it up to fate, but Jazmine Hughes was my host in 2009 when I first visited Connecticut College. We ate Mexican Monday in Harris, did homework in her dorm room, got breakfast sandwiches in Cro and went to a College Voice writers meeting. Since then, she’s been my News Editor, my co-News Editor and finally my Editor in Chief. In the Voice office, for all intents and purposes, I’ve never stopped being the prospie.
I wrote and copy-edited my way through freshman year, until my future as news editor was decided over a cup of coffee at the New York Times building in April. More specifically, I think Jazmine and I were standing at an intersection in New York City, trying to figure out which direction to take, and she told me that if I got it wrong I wouldn’t get the position. I’m pretty sure I got it wrong. Fast forward to two weeks ago, the night of Jazmine’s last issue. We stayed in the office longer than we needed to. She didn’t want to leave, and I wasn’t ready to fill her brightly colored Nike shoes.
It’s an honor to be fourth in a line of femmes fatales Editors in Chief, but also terrifying because it’s hard to reconcile the image of my mentors with that of myself. Claire Gould’s legacy, for example, is impossible to attain. I’ll never have Lilah’s swag or Jazmine’s tenacity. Compared to them, I feel woefully unprepared. I’ve never taken an English class at Conn, and I don’t understand words like “dangling modifier.” I can’t rock a pair of oversized hipster eyeglasses, but I can sing every word of any Spice Girls song. I’ll apologize in advance to my staff for that.
Fears and insecurities aside, I’m excited to add my touch to the paper, the quirk that next year’s EIC will reflect on. I have lots of ideas and I bought a Moleskine journal so I can write them all down. I hear that’s what all the good journalists do. At least, Jazmine and Brian Stelter have one.
When I reflect on the College Voice, I imagine it as a student forum designed to inform, engage and spark debate in the campus community. Consider this issue, for example, illustrative of a student body-wide identity crisis over our role in “shared governance.” Three separate grievances are evident – the downward-spiraling nightlife
at Conn, the selection of Floralia bands and the controversial naming of the Commencement speaker. In all three areas, it’s clear that students want more input.
The Voice is unique in that we print pretty much what you want us to print. In other words, students can have all the input they want – a rarity even within our shared governance system. We all have passions and opinions; I encourage you to take yours to the newspaper. The Voice is a way to affect real change.
Happy Floralia!
