Building off of their existing blog, “Out of the Blue” (OOTB) will launch a revamped website.
“We’ve decided to revamp it as a more appropriate forum for online dialogue. Originally it was just 2-3 OOTB core team members running it and posting links to articles etc, but now we’re having each online section from the book (gender, religion, class, etc.) run by an editor,” said Devonae Freeland ’15, Co-Editor in Chief of the website and OOTB coordinator. The new website will also include a pdf of the OOTB book, underclassmen opinions and online resources regarding race on campus. OOTB’s new website, andover.edu/outoftheblue, will launch this week.
The original blog arose as a way of continuing the dialogue started in the print edition of OOTB, said Isabella Berkley ’15, Co-Editor in Chief of the OOTB website and OOTB coordinator. Berkley and Freeland want the blog to be a place that fosters dialogue on both issues internal and external to Andover, as well as a place where students can always voice their opinions.
“The blog is really a space to continuously be sharing stories, to be responding to and sharing opinion pieces about things that are going on on campus, about things that are going on in the larger world sense,” said Berkley.
Along with wanting to continue the dialogue started in the book, the OOTB coordinators hope that the blog elevates the level of discourse on campus in a way that cannot occur on social media.
“We made a conscious decision not to just have a Facebook page… We made that decision because we wanted the book to sort of stand on its own, and be a more monitored space and a safe environment for people… It would be more of a facilitated discussion,” said Berkley.
Freeland said, “We look at this as an opportunity to get underclassmen involved in the dialogue. We’re reaching out to organizations such as AMP, the Af-Lat-Am mentoring program for new students, to say, ‘If you have something to say or a story to submit, we want that and we want to provide this space for you to do that.’”
