Dear Foghorn readers,
Between the growing to-do lists and final projects piling up, I hope each of you are taking care of yourselves during this final stretch of the semester. This is our last issue of 2025, and we’re ending with a busy semester behind us, filled with many feats to be proud of.
I want to give a special shout out and thanks to Samantha, Serena and Mariha who will be leaving our staff and graduating this December. You have all contributed in such beautiful ways to our publication, and I hope you know there will always be a you-shaped imprint on these pages. I know you will each go on to accomplish amazing things, and be so fabulous in the undertaking of post-grad life.
To my media studies sister Serena, I am so happy we finally got to work together this semester, after having talked about it since our freshman year. I will never forget that you were the one to encourage me to write for the Foghorn, and I really credit you for setting me on this path. This week in your section, you made a beautiful case for journalism and called for the end of people prematurely grieving an industry that still has much to give. I agree that we are the renaissance that journalism needs, and I want to echo your call to bring passion and skepticism to this next phase of the working world, not just for journalism students but for all of us working to make an impact in our industries.
As we all plan for the next semester, I want to share one of my biggest hopes and deepest fears for the new year.
As many of you might not realize, student newspapers such as ours are in a very precarious position. As the freedom of the press and our right to free speech continues to deteriorate, causing our democracy to spoil, it’s time to recognize that we all have a voice to share, no matter what major you might be or what little experience you have in writing.
Earlier in October, the Indiana Daily Student — the official student newspaper of Indiana University — was barred from running the print version of their paper, and their faculty advisor was fired after alleging the act as censorship. Being an award-winning newspaper, and having run independently from the university since 1969, this change sent a shock wave that was felt by every student newspaper in this country. As Indiana University enters a lawsuit by the fired faculty advisor for violating their first amendment rights, I’m left hoping this is the last time something like this happens.
It’s no secret that the state of journalism is in a very bleak place, but now is not the time to succumb to such defeat.
Each of you has an opportunity to positively change the doomed fate we are barreling towards, not just in journalism, but for our democracy. Our freedom to speak doesn’t only have to be about hard topics, it can be anything that comes from our hearts and minds, and especially anything that will spark debate and plant seeds for connection.
I implore each of you to contribute to this publication while you are still on campus, because you can only benefit from doing so. In an age where computers and algorithms are hijacking our brains and killing our talents, prove that you are someone who can still think critically and can be trusted in creating a better future for us.
