The Tartan

After two years as Editor-in-Chief of The Tartan, this is my last issue in the position. How do I even begin to explain my three-and-half years at this organization?

I joined The Tartan during fall of my first year, when everything was over Zoom and only half of all students were on campus. I was on the staff of my high school newspaper and served as News Editor, and after coming to Carnegie Mellon, knew it was something I wanted to continue. Here I am now, one semester away from graduating, writing my 164th article for The Tartan, beating former Publisher Sujay for most articles in (recent) Tartan history.

It’s interesting to take a step back and see how The Tartan has changed so much over the past four years. When I joined, we were still going through COVID, and there were very few people on staff. The only people still around from that year are myself and Kaylin, who has served as SciTech editor for the past three years. If you go back and look, we were averaging nine, maybe ten articles a week; it was a struggle to get content, and I can’t blame people for not contributing when everything felt so isolating.

But what did that mean for me? I took over as Lead Copy Editor (then “Copy Manager”) my first spring semester, and The Tartan returned to in-person meetings and physical printing the following fall. At the time, most of the staff was new — several editors were appointed in the first few weeks of classes — and it was still a struggle to get writers to show up and contribute. Productions would sometimes go well past midnight, with only myself and then-Editor-in-Chief Frank the only ones left in the office. It was a struggle, and it made me question my future with this organization and the organization itself.

Since then, thanks to the work of all of the editors during my time here at The Tartan, we now have a consistent staff and every editor position is filled, what would have been a pipe dream two years ago. One thing I’ve struggled with in this role is learning how to keep people coming back when the workload gets to be so much. There were times when I was spending 15 to 20 hours in the The Tartan office every week, and it’s only because I didn’t want to see this organization die out.

But how do you convince an entire staff of busy college students that putting out a newspaper is worth it? It’s a question I still struggle with, but I’ve learned that it’s not my place to give other people a reason to stay in this organization — each person on staff has their own reason for contributing, and it’s not one person’s responsibility to hold an entire organization together. Each person needs to find their own reason to come back. I’ve tried to build The Tartan to be a place where people have come to hang out and help out with Tartan work rather than being the slog that I felt it was when I first joined.

I wish I could go back to pre-pandemic times to see what The Tartan was, and I find myself wondering what The Tartan looked liked in the years before I joined. Sure, I’ve heard stories about what it was like, but it’s not the same as actually experiencing it. I’ve said it so many times, but The Tartan now is not the same as it was even five years ago, mostly due to the effects COVID had on it. Regardless, I’m satisfied with what The Tartan looks like now, and I’m honored to be a part of it and to have contributed so much to the organization.

But what do these articles and any of my work at The Tartan amount to? I’ve bounced around a lot in terms of writing, having written for every section at least 20 times, and it’s hard to measure if anything I’ve written had an impact. It’s a thought I’ve faced several times since starting writing for any newspaper: Does anyone actually read this? Does anyone actually care?

It’s difficult to come to terms that you can’t make someone care about something that you spend so much time and effort working on. I struggled most of my sophomore and junior year trying to figure out how to make people care about The Tartan, both internally and in terms of readership, and it’s led me to redevelop my approach. It shouldn’t be about making other people care about what you do, but rather focus more on the fun and enjoyment you get out of doing it. Sure, it’s a great feeling to see empty newsstands around campus, but I’ve found it’s more important to be proud of your work and that you enjoyed the hours in the office, especially if you’ve come to consider many of them close friends.

Another thing that I’ve been confronted more with this year than in previous years is addressing what it means to be a student journalist on campus. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, The Tartan has been trying to navigate perspectives and all the events happening around campus. I appreciate the feedback and letters we’ve received from community members. When there’s so much discussion about the way we use words, The Tartan aims to provide an open forum for these conversations and allow students to share their thoughts with the student body.

The Tartan also occupies a unique place on campus as a bridge between the student body, student government, and administration. Over the past three years the dynamic between these groups have changed so much, and I’m interested to see how they develop in the future. The Tartan is responsible for getting important stories out to the student body, and that sometimes includes challenging governing bodies to maintain transparency with the broader Carnegie Mellon community. At the same time, The Tartan also should celebrate the successes of student government and the university. It’s a difficult line to walk — that relationship changes every year, and I expect for it to keep changing in the years to come.

The other editors and I navigate having a limited staff to cover important topics happening on and around campus. We don’t always have people to write opposing viewpoints, and our staff doesn’t always have the ability or capacity to write about every important issue on campus. One of the important lessons I’ve learned is no matter how much you want someone to write an article about something, you can never force them to do it, which is why having a sizable staff is so important. The Tartan really flourishes when there’s diversity in the staff, and I’m so happy to see the staff grow and change every year.

I could blab for hours about things I wish the Tartan would do, but honestly, I think The Tartan is good at what we do. Carnegie Mellon doesn’t have a journalism program, so we rely on previous experience or current staff members to teach new writers how to put stories together. I’m grateful to all the returners who help new contributors learn our process and get started.

That’s honestly one of my favorite parts about The Tartan: the people on staff. I’ve spent so many hours in the office with the current editors, and it’s going to feel so strange not serving as Editor-in-Chief next semester. For readers, The Tartan is all about the content, but for the people on staff, it’s think it’s about all the work we put in and the hours that we spend together. When I first joined, I felt like an outsider (like all new members of organizations do). However, after actually attending meetings and getting involved, I found my place. One of the great things about The Tartan is that we’re all bound by our commitment to get this newspaper out every week, and that this is, quite frankly, a passion project for all of us. While we’ve instituted a small honorarium for editors, we’re all here because The Tartan matters to us, and that commonality helps to quickly develop friendships.

Something that I’ve also been thinking about a lot as I move closer to graduating is impact — both my personal impact and that of The Tartan. As many of the curious staff members of The Tartan have shown me, our works live for a very, very long time. In 20 years, will someone look through old editions of The Tartan and glance at the EdBoard staff and see my name as Editor-in-Chief? It’s nice to believe that’s the case, but I’m more willing to believe that it’s probably not going to happen.

As for my personal impact, what have I really contributed to The Tartan, or the Carnegie Mellon community as a whole? When I tell people everything I’m involved in, I usually receive questions like “When do you sleep?” and “Do you ever take a break?” During my time at Carnegie Mellon, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in so many things, from Scotch’n’Soda to Residential Education to student government to The Tartan, and I’ve enjoyed every single one of them for different reasons. To this day, I have mixed feelings about how much I’ve done at Carnegie Mellon and if I would have done differently. I don’t think I would; I think I’ve found my place at Carnegie Mellon, and I’m looking forward to slowly stepping away from all my commitments — I have very few regrets about my time here.

How would Carnegie Mellon be different if I wasn’t here? I was one of 6,819 students offered a place on the waiting list when admissions came out in March 2020. I was one of 3,461 students who accepted a place on the waitlist, and one of 288 students admitted off the waitlist. At this point, it’s hard to think about where I would be otherwise, and it’s something I think about more often than I should.

It’s a good reminder that not everything is in your control. Sometimes things work out, and other times, they don’t. It’s been one of my guiding principles while being here at Carnegie Mellon, and I’ve just learned to go with whatever happens, which honestly has saved me from being too stressed out about work and being busy. I’m glad I was able to learn to work with what I have been given.

As I get ready to step down as Editor-in-Chief, I know I am leaving this organization in capable hands — I’ve worked with many of the incoming editors for several semesters, and I’m proud of what The Tartan has become. It’s hard to take credit for the success of The Tartan when there are so many people who have been here to help along the way, and I can’t even begin listing out everyone right now. I would like to extend my gratitude for everyone who has supported me in my time as Editor-in-Chief of The Tartan. To all of our readers who give me a reason to work so hard on this paper every week, thank you!