News

After 30 Issues, CXXXVIII Bids Farewell to the Newsroom

Members of The Phillipian vol. CXXXVIII played their ritual song, “Come On Eileen” last Thursday as they waited to send their final paper to the publisher. As the guitar chords echoed around the newsroom, the editors solidified a legacy filled with countless late nights of arguing over editorials and early mornings spent salvaging leftover chips and smuggling Capri Sun pouches.

This week signals the last paper for the 138th board and the beginning of The Phillipian vol. CXXXIX, a board featuring a seven-person Upper Management consisting of Editorial, Digital and Business Upper Managements.

Under the leadership of CXXXVIII, The Phillipian established Staff Writer positions, launched a redesigned website, advanced the digitalization of the paper and operated a pay-free subscription for all members on campus.

Sara Luzuriaga ’16, former Editor in Chief of The Phillipian, said, “[The newsroom is] a really special place. You meet really special people and you are doing a really incredible thing – making a paper each week. I think it is so important to make the most of it because it goes so quickly. Thirty weeks seems like a long time, but standing on the other end of it and looking back at all the time I spent here, I think sometimes I didn’t do as much with that time as I could have.”

Juju Lane ’17, former Features Editor, will replace Luzuriaga as Editor in Chief, as well as assuming the role of President of The Phillipian.

Lane said, “I learned from Sara that even if you don’t know someone, it’s important to be open and friendly and [to] get to know everyone, even if it’s kind of hard at first, because I was really scared of her for quite a while. I’m in her dorm and I would see her in the bathroom and I would be so scared, like ‘Am I brushing my teeth right?’ But she always treated me with so much respect, and she treats everyone with so much respect, and that’s something that I’m striving to be like.”

Luzuriaga said, “I think Juju is above all very, very smart. Coming from Features, she has taken a lot of the lessons she learned about writing a humor section in the community newspaper and used those lessons to learn more about journalism and the paper as a whole. I think she has really great instincts, instincts that are really unique in someone of her age. I have 100 percent faith in her.”

A re-established editorial Upper Management position in CXXXIX is the role of Executive Editor, which will be fulfilled by Alexa Tsay ’17, former Associate Sports Editor.

“We wanted to add the Executive Editor position so that the Editor in Chief could have more freedom to do larger scale projects and work more with the other boards. So the Executive Editor, now Alexa, will be doing a lot of editing and she will be taking a lot of the burden off of Juju so that [Juju] can do these different projects,” said Luzuriaga.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know [CXXXIX] and I think we’re all going to work together really well. I’m looking forward to everything we can accomplish,” said Tsay.

Chaya Holch ’17, former Associate Commentary Editor, and Jack Twomey ’17, former Associate Copy Editor, will succeed Avery Jonas ’16, Erica Shin ’16 and Skylar-Bree Takyi ’16 as Managing Editors.

“I think that Managing Editors are there to create the environment that you want for the newsroom,” said Takyi. “In my opinion, they’re there to be accessible. Whoever the newsroom needs them to be, they need to be that person. If they [need] to be stern, then that. Whoever the newsroom requires them to be.”

Shin said, “I think [CXXXIX is] going to be bold, which was something we weren’t. We were pretty careful as a paper but… I think they’re going to push boundaries.”

When asked about her favorite memory with CXXXVIII, Takyi replied, “To be honest, most of [my favorite memories] are too inappropriate for this paper. Bathrooms.”

The 139th board includes two Executive Digital Editors (EDE) in place of one. Both Ally Klionsky ’17, former Associate Layout Editor, and Rudd Fawcett ’18, former Associate Online Editor, will take over responsibilities previously held by Pranav Tadikonda ’16.

“I picked Ally and Rudd together because I think they compliment each other very well. They both bring two unique skill sets. Rudd is a little more technically focused, and Ally is a little bit more visually focused, but I also chose them because I see in both of them the capacity to grow and improve, and really develop into the kind of person that has to cover the multi-faceted EDE role,” said Tadikonda.

Sabrina Lu ’17, former Business Associate, will replace Haley Avery ’16 as Chief Financial Officer. Alongside Lu, Kristy Lam ’17 and Wendy Zhang ’17 are now Advertising Managers, and Connor Haugh ’17 is Subscriptions Manager. Lam, Zhang and Haugh were all former Associate Business Editors and will replace Riku Fukumori ’16 in Advertisements, Lara Danovitch ’16 and Christopher Kralik ’16 in Business and Ryan Simard ’16 in Customer Relations.

“Sabrina is incredibly hardworking, and she’s very dedicated, in a very technical and skills-based way, but more than that, she is personable, she is friendly, she knows how to connect with people, and you need that, you need the skills, and you also need the ability to connect with people, and the ability to make people feel heard. I really saw that in her from day one,” said Avery.

“Connor, Wendy and Kristy are incredibly strong members of this board. Connor is so friendly and so down to do anything. Wendy and Kristy sold more ads than I ever did as an Associate, than most people ever do. They are like machines – they are so good and so organized. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do as a team,” she continued.

Candy Chan ’17, Annie Lee ’17 and Susan Yun ’17, Former Associate News Editors, will “lede” the News section in place of Roshan Benefo ’16, Bennett Michaels ’16 and Haley Suh ’16.

“[I will miss] working with the associates. That was pretty awesome. And it’s honestly the best part of The Phillipian, working with [a] group of people that are motivated and really bring new life to the section,” said Benefo. Nancy Kim ’17 and Sewon Park ’17, former Associate Commentary Editors, will succeed Alessa Cross ’16 and Tyler Lian ’16 as Commentary Editors.

“I think that Commentary will continue this momentum of just great personal articles that really show to the community who its members really are and what they’re thinking,” said Cross. “I think that Commentary will just continue to be an important springboard for discussion, and allow members of this community to get to know each other more and be more empathetic.” Lian said, “I think Nancy has a good sense of writing style, I think she’s definitely picked up a lot of what we’ve been telling her over the past few years. More specifically, I think she’ll be a calming presence in the newsroom that will secure the Commentary section. I think Sewon has a good rapport with the writers, and she’ll be able to chat with them and really motivate them when necessary.” Taking over positions held by former Arts & Leisure Editors, Tiffany Bauman ’16 and Sharan Gill ’16, are Kalina Ko ’17 and Morgan Kuin ’17, former Associate Arts & Leisure Editors.

Gill said, “As a pair, [Kalina and Morgan] are just so, so nice [and] they are both just so hard working… I think with Arts, it is sort of hard to cover events like music concerts [or] theater productions that happen every single year [and not make] them sound like the same article. Being able to write about topics that can kind of blend in sometimes can be a challenge, but knowing Kalina and Morgan, I really think that they can rise to that challenge.”

Former Associate Sports Editors Laura Bilal ’17, Cassie Chin ’17, Howard Johnson ’17 and Andrew Zhang ’17 will replace Victoria Bergeron ’16, Isabella Haegg ’16 and Peter Hahn ’16 as Sports Editors.

Bergeron said, “Because sports is going from eight people working on the section to four, that means [the workload] is doubling per person. That’s definitely the biggest challenge – readjusting to that and also getting used to working with [CXXXIX], but I think that’s also one of the best parts, is when you get the newsroom alone for the first time because you realize how much emptier and easier to maneuver it is.”

Peter Rossano ’17, Jair Suazo ’17 and Emma Wong ’18, former Associate Copy Editors, will replace Sayer Devlin ’16, Kyle Kingston ’16 and Olivia Michaels ’16 as Copy Editors.

“Trust nobody because you never know who is going to make a mistake. The only section that knows what they are doing is Copy,” said Devlin.

“I think that [the Copy Editors] will really push the paper forward instead of falling back on old habits and relying on old style guides. They’ll really go out there and make it their own,” said Olivia Michaels.

Former Associate Photo Editors Leah Hamann ’17 and James Wolfe ’17 will succeed Lauren Luo ’16 and Jessie Schmitt ’16 as Photo Editors. Both previous Photo Editors trust that Hamann and Wolfe will be able to capture the importance of teamwork in their new positions.

“I think the two of them get along really well, and it’s definitely going to be a challenge to groom the next generation of photographers, but I really think that communicating with them and making them feel comfortable, giving them constructive criticism, is what they’re going to do best at,” said Luo.

With the 139th board, Video is looking to play a bigger part in the digitalization of the paper. Former Associate Video Editors, Mika Curran ’17, Josh Lee ’17 and Charlotte Suan ’17 along with Skyler Sallick ’17, will replace former Video Editors Kastan Day ’16, Jeff Lee ’16, Ian Tan ’16 and Olivia Xiong ’16.

Taking over the role of Features Editor from Emily Anderson ’16 are Emma Rosz Kelley ’17 and John Wu ’17, former Associate Features Editors.

Former Associate Layout & Design Editor, Niko Skrivanos ’17 will succeed Julia Donovan ’16 and Jessica Lee ’16 as Layout & Design Editor. Former Associate Illustration Editors, Sarah Al-Mayahi ’17 and Alice Lu ’17 will follow Nathaniel Redding ’16 as Illustration Editors. Former Online Associate Editors, Lior Hirschfield ’17, Moe Sunami ’17 and Jerry Yang ’17 will replace former Online Editors Annette Bell ’16 and Thomas Cherukuri ’16.

To The Phillipian Volume CXXXVIII, Lane said “I have the utmost respect for you, and I can’t really imagine this paper without you guys, but I know you’ll always be here and your legacy will truly live on, because you’ve taught us all so much. I couldn’t thank you more.”