In April 2025, I was chosen to be the editor-in-chief of the Chimes, a publication I have written for since I was a first-year at the university. Although I did not show it, becoming editor-in-chief was very scary to me.
Our publication, like many others, was in a deep state of crisis. Print is a dying form of news, and digital is the preferred way of digesting news for almost everyone.
The Chimes was not the only part of the university community going through a large transition; one would be hard-pressed to find a part of campus that has not changed in the last year.
Four out of the five previous members of management were graduating, and our longtime adviser, Kelly Messinger, was retiring. It was a very daunting thing for a then-sophomore to think about.
Around that time, I rewatched one of my favorite movies, Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune.”
Duke Leto Atreides, played by Oscar Isaac, said, “A great man doesn’t seek to lead. He is called to it, and he answers.”
I am not saying I am a great man, but at that moment, I knew what I had to do. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”
In the 11 months since that moment, the Chimes has watched the university transform: the selection of a new president, the selection of a new provost, the selection of new Chimes management.
In the constant floods of change, we could have easily drowned in the pressure, but we flowed with it, waiting to see where it would take us.
And here we are, 11 months later: the third best collegiate newspaper in the country within our division, and the third best website in the country within our division, among other awards.
Greg Belliveau, our faculty adviser, has been our rock. Last spring, he told me that we were working with a “skeleton crew.”
We definitely were.
All returning members were on the management team, and we had no reporters. We didn’t just survive; we exceeded expectations.
I came into the year with the philosophy that I didn’t care about the awards, as long as we continuously got better (in hindsight, the awards are definitely a nice plus).
To everyone reading this, I can’t stress enough how much work was put into this year. It has been such a valuable experience for me to have been able to meet first-year students and watch them flourish as writers within our newsroom.
Do not fear, we are not done! We leave New York enriched and return to campus with new ideas and inspiration on how the Chimes will continue to provide the university the information they deserve.
As Frank Sinatra once sang in his song “Theme from New York, New York:”
“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”
