Dear Foghorn readers,
Welcome to the new school year. As we’re stepping back onto campus, I wish you all the best in your classes and various responsibilities. This is my last year as a USF student, and my last year working for The Foghorn. For those of you who know me, you know how I’ve dedicated my time here to this paper, and how deeply I believe in the work we do.
Finally being in this position of Editor-in-Chief means more to me than having climbed up in rank. I recognize that I’m taking on this role within a context of serious need for positive leadership, and a new approach in representing our student body.
Being head of The Foghorn this year has me reeling in nostalgia over the growth I’ve achieved since contributing my first story freshman year. It took me a whole semester to build up the confidence to claim a story. I had no faith in calling myself a writer, even though everything within me was telling me to get my voice out there.
I’m grateful everyday that I took that step out of my comfort zone, and for every part of the path that has gotten me to where I am today.
All of us have taken unique paths that have led us to being on this campus together. This year, the sounds of our footsteps across campus reverberate at a different frequency than ever before. We are coming into this semester following a summer of incredible change, for better or for worse. Our feet fall heavy on our way to class as we think about the pain that has continued to erupt across the world, both near and far. We are rarely given a break in dealing with the unethical behavior of those who are supposed to lead and support us; those who claim we are too inexperienced to understand what’s wrong and what’s right.
In journalism, all we concern ourselves with is ethics. It is the responsibility of the reporter to always judge the ethical implications and nuances of the information they access, and the job of any good reporter is to consider how their work will affect others.
This is something that many of us can understand. Our generation’s timeline is blemished with several “once in a lifetime” events that have left a serious impact on the way we perceive the world, and understand our placement within this global society. Our campus proved that with every rally in support of those most affected by such pain, and every call made to rectify the actions of those in positions of power.
Many of the issues that we have with the world have to do with the violation of what we believe to be ethical, and as a student-run newspaper, we serve as your platform to represent such concerns. Part of our ethical code is to report for the students and greater USF community, and do so without any interception from administrators.
As students of this school, we have immense privilege to be a part of an institution of higher education where we are allowed to voice our opinion and ask difficult questions. While we still have it, I urge all of you to exercise your right to speak up; lean on your community to find comfort in each other, despite every reason we have right now to believe everything is wrong with the world.
If we want to go fast, we can go alone. But if we want to go far, we have to go together.
