The tides are changing at The Lawrentian, and to uncover what exactly is in store for the newspaper, I took it upon myself to travel to Bjorklünden this past weekend to get the scoop from the Editorial Board. I was able to talk to News Editors junior Noah Gunther and senior Mackenzie Rech about their thoughts on the board’s actions as they choose their successors.
Gunther stressed the importance of getting the board together in the retreat setting of Bjorklünden to make these decisions. “I think it’s integral to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Lawrentian Editorial Board that we act as a cohesive unit and make powerful decisions in person about who the next editors will be and how we’ll handle managerial tasks,” he said.
In addition to attending to business, the Lawrentian editors also had time to bond together. “I’m here for [Kappa Alpha] Theta, but I’ve been to some Lawrentian events,” Rech said, declining to go into detail. It was Gunther who told me about the activities the group engaged in. “We tried to watch ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox,’ but the streaming wasn’t very good, so we ended up doing karaoke. That was fun,” he said. I asked him what song he sang, and he answered, “‘You Make My Dreams Come True,’ Hall & Oates. It’s in ‘500 Days Of Summer.’ It’s the part where it’s like animated birds, I think, and people dancing.”
Clearly having gotten off topic, I tried to find out more about the newspaper’s plans. Gunther declined to disclose who the next editors will be, but Rech told me that it would not be an easy decision. “There’s a lot of hot candidates,” she said. “Like, qualified … you know what I mean?”
Gunther was able to tell me which current board members would be rising to managerial positions. “Lizzy Weekes, who’s [Arts & Entertainment editor] right now—highly qualified—is going to be the next editor-in-chief. And Alex Kurki, who’s a copy editor right now, is going to be copy chief. We’ve got a lot of talent rising to the top,” he said.
Since their time as News editors is expiring, I was curious what would be next for Rech and Gunther. Rech said that if she were to continue with The Lawrentian as a writer in her last term on campus, she had one serious condition: “I’m only continuing on if I can have a ‘Gossip Mack’ column in Variety.”
I then asked Gunther if he would be staying on with The Lawrentian.
“Um,” he answered.
“He’s thinking about it,” current Editor-in-Chief Zach Ben-Amots interjected.
“Well, this is my interview, so …” Gunther told him.
“OK, yeah. He hasn’t made up his mind yet,” Ben-Amots said.
“I’m thinking about it. I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Gunther concluded.
However, he did say he had made up his mind that he would no longer serve as News editor. “I’m thinking about going back to writing. Right now, The Lawrentian has a lot of good people working in the editorial positions, but the newspaper would benefit from having a strong writing staff. We have some writers graduating, so I figured maybe the best thing I could do for the newspaper at this point is go back to writing,” he said.
Rech would probably agree that this is a good move for Gunther. Though she described their working relationship as positive, she said, “Usually anything that goes wrong is Noah’s fault.” I decided to take this remark with a grain of salt, because earlier in the interview, Rech had told me that her official title was editor-in-chief and copy chief. “I handle both,” she insisted.
When I asked if I could interview him for The Lawrentian, the actual editor-in-chief, Ben-Amots, asked, “What is that?” He could not be reached for further comment.