The Buchtelite has grown substantially over the course of the school year and it could not have been done without the help of the student body.

As the independent student newspaper, The Buchtelite takes pride in both writing news that students may not have known about and relaying their concerns and opinions to the entire campus community.

Last spring semester, the paper had gone on hiatus. It was brought back with a new staff and a new business model. Growing our readership and involvement with the student community was one of the goals we had in designing our new model. The more involvement The Buchtelite has with students, the more we can better understand, and thus, better write about topics and concerns they are interested in.

We communicate with students in several ways. If we do not talk to students directly or via email, The Buchtelite releases surveys to gather information. We also accept opinion pieces from students which may be published in the paper. I want to thank all of those who have communicated with us or have completed surveys we have sent out. We would not be able to successfully be the independent student newspaper without you.

I also want to thank the hard-working students and faculty members who have worked tirelessly to keep the paper going as a business. Professors Julie Cajigas and Val Pipps worked to keep The Buchtelite from going away completely after it had been on hiatus. Without them, there may not currently be a student newspaper. I have so much respect for them both as people and as educators.

The Buchtelite staff is also utterly respected in my eyes. They have worked so hard to learn newswriting style and upkeep newswriting standards in a short amount of time. Two of our editors are graduating this semester: sports and entertainment editor, Erika Newcome and copy editor, Robert Barrett Jr. I wish them the best luck in their endeavors and it was such a pleasure being able to work with them.

If any student is interested in newswriting, we are always accepting volunteer writers and we also have a few open paid positions available. We are interested in finding a sports editor, an arts and entertainment editor, a social media editor and a special editions editor. If a student is interested in any of these positions, they can contact me at [email protected].

Likewise, a student can email me if they have a topic they would like covered in The Buchtelite or if they would like to submit an opinion piece. Please submit your opinion pieces at [email protected]. We value your opinions and your viewpoints and would like to hear what you have to say.

In the future, we plan on sending out surveys via our e-edition. Our e-edition is a weekly email that consists of the stories we have written over the past week. If you would like to have our stories delivered to your email or would like to participate in our student surveys several times a semester, you can subscribe at https://buchtelite.com/subscribe/.

Thank you for reading the Buchtelite. I look forward to writing news for you and on your behalf next school year.