Cameron Messinides ’19, Editor-in- Chief

I’ll be frank: I’m concerned about Kenyon’s direction. At the Collegian this year, we pursued several important stories that we were never able to publish. Sources weren’t willing to speak on the record, or we could never verify crucial facts. These were stories about the health and wellbeing of Kenyon students: stories about sexual harassment, campus accessibility and changes at the Counseling Center. Stories I think students deserve to know.

I chose to help lead the Collegian because I believed this newspaper could give voice to truth. I still believe that. I’m proud of what we did publish, like our reporting on the 2018 midterms and Sisterhood’s theme housing. But after a year at this job, I’ve come to realize that truth, predictably, is tricky business. Not everything that should come to light, does.

Whether it comes from the Collegian or elsewhere, in one year or ten, I hope Kenyon students and the rest of the community will find the truth they need to know. Fare thee well, Old Kenyon — fare thee well.

Devon Musgrave-Johnson ’19, Editor-in-Chief

Over my years with the Collegian, I have seen the campus at some of its best moments and some of its worst. I’ve seen our staff break stories about moments of unity and hope as well as stories of negligence and misconduct. Throughout all of this, we as a community have learned. As I prepare to leave this campus, I see a lot of room for growth.

I can only hope that in the coming years, every member of the Kenyon community — from students to administrators — not only takes the path of growth and learning, but has an equal opportunity to do so. I can’t guarantee that this will happen, but I believe that it can. Either way, I trust that the Collegian will be there to be the record of it all. I’m thankful for everyone who has helped our paper grow over my time here and excited to hand over the responsibility to those who will come after us.

Grant Miner ’19, Managing Editor

Public perception of the media is at the lowest point that it’s been in American history, or at least in our lifetimes. The most egregious and widespread problem is that papers which see themselves as “speaking truth to power” often fail utterly in that objective. In the best cases, they preserve the status quo, and in the worst, they speak truth as told by power.

As an editor at the Collegian, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about all the times our paper has done the latter rather than the former. The same goes for the thought that, maybe, we have helped that happen a little less as well. But I’ve also heard many people speak as if they never make that mistake either — the same people who complain about administrative wrongdoing weeks after it’s reported in the Collegian. This isn’t me begging for more readership. Thinking that there isn’t any news worth reporting at Kenyon is part of the problem.