The Last Word

By Anna McCormally and Katie Winters

It is midnight on Wednesday, Sept. 8, and we, Anna McCormally and Katie Winters, are writing to welcome you to this semester’s first issue of your student-run newspaper, the Earlham Word.

This semester it is our goal, as ever, to publish stories that are of use to the Earlham as well as wider Richmond community — that is, stories that keep you well-informed with regard to governance and student life, keep an eye on the integrity of Earlham as an institution and reflect the diversity that makes Earlham the place that it is.

But we are also keeping in mind something that is important that no one forgets: this is your paper, your tool, not just ours, and our first and foremost goal is to keep your readership.

The Word is an organization that is run by a student staff but is fueled by the Earlham community as a whole. We want every student at Earlham to be able to pick up a copy of the Word and find something they are interested in, learn something new, or read something that sparks a new interest. It’s shameless, but it’s true: we want to write about what you want to read about.

This semester we will bring you updates as the Presidential Search Committee works to find a replacement for Doug; we will keep you up to date on what SAB has planned; we will make sure ESG stays honest. In addition, we have decided to work to extend the Word into the Richmond community through a monthly publication that will detail live music and other festivals taking place in Richmond.

Not enough? Let us know what we can do! Send in your story suggestions, your opinions, and your cheers and sneers. Prefer word search to sudoku? We can make that happen for you, Earlham. If what you want is a word search, then by God you will get a word search.

Every week we will reserve this column, titled “The Last Word” as a nod to the Word’s former pun-crazy editor-in-chief Marisa Keller, as a space for a member of the Word’s Editorial Council to write on an Earlham or Richmond issue close to his or her heart. As ever, if you have a suggestion for a topic, let us know.

We look forward to hearing from you. Until next week,

—Anna and Katie