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Greetings, fellow Lawrentians! For those who don’t know me, I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to introduce myself, even though it is on my way out the door. My name is Rose Williams, and I’ve been The Lawrentian’s Copy Chief for the past two news cycles. Now, as a graduating senior, I will be stepping down at the end of this news cycle, which is the end of this term.
It’s a strange feeling to realize that I won’t be working for The Lawrentian this spring, since I’ve worked here during every term I’ve been at Lawrence. I first joined as a copy editor in October 2021, weeks after beginning my first year, and I was promoted to Copy Chief starting in Spring Term 2023. Despite all this time working behind the scenes, however, I’ve only ever written a single piece for The Lawrentian — “Memorial,” a poem in honor of my late grandfather, which was published in the Oct. 25, 2024 edition and is available online. Now, in my first and only prose piece, I’d like to take the time to tell you a bit about what it’s like to perform the roles I’ve held.
As both a copy editor and Copy Chief, I’ve striven to uphold the core copy-editing concepts of clarity, consistency and conciseness. It has been my job to ensure that The Lawrentian is as accurate and readable as possible — to let the stories shine through, unencumbered by spelling, grammatical or punctual errors. Sometimes, this means catching a potentially egregious error, such as the misgendering of an interviewee. Other times, it means asking if the personified entity Ms. Buffalo Chicken Wrap’s last name is “Buffalo” or “Wrap.” (Yes, that really happened, and to answer your question, it was “Buffalo.”) Either way, I take this job seriously.
Ensuring that an article follows Associated Press (AP) style is not as easy as it may seem, since the AP themselves often change the rules over time. When I began working for The Lawrentian, titles of books and movies were italicized; now, they are placed in quotation marks. The terms “Black,” “Deaf” and “Indigenous” have been given capitalization to reflect the communities they represent. Lawrence-specific alterations were also made; my first year at Lawrence was the first year of First-Year Studies, rather than Freshman Studies, and The Lawrentian also replaced the term “freshman” with the non-gendered term “first-year” when referring to Lawrence students. We even switched the type of paper we print our editions on. (Despite all these changes, the Oxford comma, sadly, remains omitted.)
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, either behind the scenes or in the public eye. Sometimes, as a copy editor, it’s difficult to resist making extensive changes to a lukewarm story or to completely reverse the perspective of an infuriating op-ed. I’ve angrily cried through an article or two over my years with the paper. But at the end of the day, I’ve done my job — looked up missing class years, double-checked spellings, verified facts and left the writing style — and, when applicable, the opinions — up to the writer.
After all of this information, it may be surprising to learn that I’m a STEM major, specifically in physics and mathematics. But thanks to Lawrence University’s liberal arts model, I’ve been able to pursue interests across all disciplines, including taking classes in the humanities, singing in choir for all four years, co-chairing the Lawrence University Disability Working Group (LUDWiG) and, yes, working for The Lawrentian. This is a challenging time to be a member of the press, even at an institution like Lawrence. Still, as a student-run, independent newspaper, The Lawrentian sets an example for what the press should be. I am amazed by and proud of all of our employees, and I know that I leave this paper and this role in good hands.
Next week’s edition will be my last, but I am so grateful to have been on this journey, and I’m ready to do it one final time. Happy editing, y’all.