The opinions expressed in The Lawrentian are those of the students, faculty and community members who wrote them. The Lawrentian does not endorse any opinions piece except for the staff editorial, which represents a majority of the editorial board. The Lawrentian welcomes everyone to submit their own opinions. For the full editorial policy and parameters for submitting articles, please refer to the about section.
Dear Reader,
At the beginning of the term, I submitted a letter outlining some of the goals I have as editor-in-chief and some of the changes that have been made within our organization. I’m back with an update!
This term, we officially implemented our new pay structure for all of our staff. No longer are writers, photographers and artists only paid at the end of the term in lump for their submissions; instead, these staff members are now paid hourly for their time spent in meetings, attending events or interviewing sources. Time spent writing/creating is not logged on their time sheets, though, for they are still paid at the end of the term for their submissions. To view the job descriptions or to read more about our payment structure, please visit our handbook by visiting this link: https://sway.office.com/AiZT3udGwxPqMVtm?ref=Link.
As before, editorial board members are paid hourly. Job descriptions for the editorial board positions are gradually being added to the handbook, and I plan to finish this process over break. This is a priority, especially as we head into another hiring season for the next news cycle (Spring Term 2022-Winter Term 2023).
Regarding positions on the editorial board, we added a position! Paola Saldaña Galvan is our new layout editor, a position newly created to reduce the hours of the editor-in-chief role. We hope this will make the editor-in-chief role more accessible by only being 10 hours/week rather than 15 and will also provide another opportunity for a student to gain experience through The Lawrentian.
While adding a new role, we also chose not to fill the public advocate role. Our previous public advocate communicated with the campus at large via surveys, aided in the verification process and collaborated with our web manager on running the social media accounts. These responsibilities have been dispersed to members across the editorial board. The purpose of the public advocate position was to create a stronger connection to campus; we now strive for this connection to be a priority for all staff members rather than just one.
Aside from hiring, we also have an update on our virtual platforms! This term, we were able to fully utilize our new website for the first time. We are beyond proud of our web manager, Nora Murphy, for all of her work on this project. She never ceases to amaze us, but this feat is truly incredible. To see her work (still in progress), visit lawrentian.com. She has also sought to revamp our social media accounts, especially our Twitter. Our Twitter now acts as a “look inside the editorial board of The Lawrentian […] and how we make it function.” You can find gems like a photo of our office pumpkin and nonsensical quotes from our meetings by following us @TheLawrentian.
In addition to having fun online, we’ve also sought to organize opportunities for staff to interact outside of Zoom. Such opportunities include a weekend at Björklunden, happy hours in the VR and Sunday brunch together. While creating friendships, we’ve also recognized the importance of boundaries. Our primary form of communication is now Slack rather than Facebook Mesenger or texting. Staff members are encouraged to set aside time for notifications to remain off and to only conduct business communication via Slack or email.
We’ve also sought to create professional development opportunities for our staff. Over the summer, several of our staff members attended the College Media Mega Workshop. Rather than encouraging multi-day workshops during the schoolyear, we thought it best to feature smaller sessions a bit more catered to our staff. With that in mind, we invited Kate Zoromski in to discuss values and how they are vital to an individual as well as an organization. Rose Wasielewski also joined us to discuss imposter phenomenon, how to navigate it and how to support those who may be experiencing it. We are incredibly grateful to these two and look forward to learning from other members of our community and beyond.
I am so proud of the growth I’ve seen within The Lawrentian and grateful for their dedication throughout these times of change. This term has been a rollercoaster, and I could not have done it without the support of our staff.
Our next edition will be released on Jan. 14, 2022. Until then, thanks for reading!
Molly Ruffing, Editor-in-Chief