I am deeply troubled by Kenyon’s trajectory. From the administration’s refusal to engage in negotiations with student workers to its negligence of students in quarantine, this year has shown what the College’s first priority is, and perhaps always has been: financial gain. 

While this is disappointing, as a journalist, it’s made for a hell of a time. Like any newspaper, we faced backlash for the things we published this year. But for all the names we got wrong and all the facts we forgot to double-check, we never sacrificed integrity for ease. We never let Kenyon off the hook for questionable COVID-19 protocols. We never stopped reporting on students’ efforts toward union recognition. We never stopped publishing even though there was no physical evidence of our work. 

In my tenure as editor-in-chief, I hammered into my staff that the best journalism is not neutral; it is engaged, truth-seeking and aware of its positionality. While that may not have made me the most popular editor, I believe it led us to produce some of the best journalism at Kenyon College in recent years. And for that I am immensely proud. 

To my staff: Thank you for trusting me when I struggled to trust myself. Thank you for having hard conversations, working late nights and effortlessly adapting to Zoom production. To our readers: Thank you for sticking with us through it all. And please, please keep reading this paper. Keep writing comments, keep doing interviews and keep sending us your thoughts. I have a feeling that Kenyon is going to get even worse before it gets better. Now more than ever, the Collegian will be necessary for documenting the truth.