Letter from the Editor: Student news still matters

Hey there, curious readers. Welcome to the inside pages of The Augustana Mirror.

My name’s Rebekah Tuchscherer, and I’ll be one of the many watchdogs, truth seekers and student writers reporting on campus news for the 2019 – 2020 academic year. I’ll also be your editor-in-chief.

You might ask why I chose to be a journalist, or even why we still have a newspaper on campus. And they’d both be a good questions.

In recent years, the news industry has struggled for a multiplicity of reasons; administrators and government officials call unsavory facts “fake news” and newspapers of all sizes — national outlets, hometown broadsheets and even college publications — have been forced to slash reporter positions to keep the presses running.

I’ve been told many times that, as a journalist, my name will most likely be included in a round of layoffs at least once during my career.

Despite these roadblocks, the institutional pillars of journalism haven’t changed and we don’t plan to give up writing anytime soon. We’re still the news hounds who keep officials in check, alert the public when breaking news hits and tell the stories that would otherwise go untold.

At The Mirror, we plan to keep staying up until 3 a.m. to tell you those stories. And we hope you’ll listen.

Along with our redesign, we have a few extra projects up our sleeves to keep you informed this year.

For one, you will find a weekly news roundup in your inbox every Friday. Coined “The Mirror Compact,” the email will include our top stories of the week and be curated by Shauna Pauli, our social media producer.

Next, you can find “Light Exchange,” our new podcast on Apple, Spotify and our website. Beau Bordewyk, our podcasting director, will give you the downlow on what’s new on campus this week and what you need to know, all in under 15 minutes. The first episode drops next Monday.

And finally — the one you might have already noticed — is our commitment to covering breaking news and engagement with students via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. When three EF-2 tornadoes hit Sioux Falls on Sept. 10, many students and faculty turned to The Mirror to ensure student safety and read updates in realtime about life on and around campus.

With these new endeavors, I can guarantee our commitment to serving as a platform for student voices will be unwavering. Even as we face challenges from administration, athletics and even our peers, we will continue to publish.

I hope you’ll support us as we tell the stories of Augustana campus, whether that be by joining us at writer’s meetings at 4 p.m. on Mondays, giving us a follow on Twitter, or even emailing us a news tip every once in awhile.

At the very least, I hope you’ll pick up a copy of our next issue. Thanks for reading.