We hope it won’t surprise you to learn that we here at the Collegian think journalism is pretty important. Whether we’re reporting on hard-hitting stories like hazardous radon levels in the New Apartments or digging into students’ burning questions about the people who ring the church bells on Friday afternoons, the heart of our mission is to keep readers on and off the Hill informed while holding accountable those whose decisions affect our community the most. And, sometimes, we manage to have a little fun, too. Whether you skim our headlines on Thursday afternoons, flip straight to the opinions section or even think you might want to be a journalist yourself, well, do we have the event for you. 

This evening at 7:30 p.m. in Archon Auditorium, the Collegian is hosting a panel discussion featuring five alumni working in the field of journalism as part of the 2025 Collegian Journalism Conference — and we want to see you there.

We know it’s cliché to say that “at a time like this” journalism is especially important, but clichés are clichés for a reason. Today, with local and national newspapers going under at an alarming rate, federal government attacks on the freedom of the press and a decrease in readership by those who believe news is boring, stressful and takes too much effort, it is not hyperbole to say journalism is more important than ever. 

Here’s a very incomplete list of groundbreaking journalism that changed the world: Watergate, Silent Spring, the Pentagon Papers. More recently, under the leadership of Matt Winkler ’77 P’13 H’00, Bloomberg News reporters won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for their exposé on how American corporations evade taxes. And never underestimate the art of the cartoon. A picture really is worth a thousand words. (Shoutout to Bill Watterson ’80 — if the Collegian opinions section could syndicate reprints of old Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, we’d do it in a heartbeat.)

Coming together to celebrate journalism in all its beautiful and various manifestations — education, editing, writing and beyond — is one way we can acknowledge journalism’s importance and sustain it. We consider ourselves so lucky to have Kenyon alumni willing to impart their wisdom and experience on undergraduates, and we are so glad that many of you feel the same way. We sincerely hope you will join us for our campus-wide talk this evening to hear from some of Kenyon’s worldly journalists. 

Sincerely,

Sacha, Dorothy and MicahThe staff editorial is written semi-weekly by Editors-in-Chief Sacha Franjola ’26 and Dorothy Yaqub ’26 and Executive Director Micah Arenstein ’26. You can contact them at franjola1@ kenyon.edu, yaqub1@kenyon.edu and arenstein1@kenyon.edu.