The Corsair: Looking ahead
As fall turns to winter and the semester draws to an end, we conclude this semesters run of the Corsair. It's cliche to say that "all things come full circle," because, in fact, that statement is false to use at any given moment. As any historian will tell you, "history does not repeat itself, only the conclusion does." And so, it's not really a circle, but a spiral that ends in similar yet different locations-this is true for the Corsair at the end of this semester. Fourteen weeks ago, a Corsair editorial declared that every semester we would change editors and, thus, opinions as to how the Corsair would be published. This being the last issue, we are proud to say that this is true, as promised. With this final issue and in the following semesters readers will, "a different flavor, different feel, and a different perspective [on how] the news [will be] covered" will occur as stated in that first issue.
In retrospective, this past semester has been nothing but a rollercoaster ride. Every week has had its share of adventures that were not for the faint of hearth or spirit. Indeed, with this semester's Presidential election, coverage we were constantly challenged to improve weekly on topics, perspectives and facts. And, every week we conquered these challenges.
The news page was on constant alert concerning any on-campus or national current events. Some topics might have been more campus oriented, but the news and eyes of the campus and nation were towards the elections and politics of the world. Campus-oriented stories were vastly covered in detail by the Sports and Arts and Leisure pages. These two pages-independent of politics-were the eyes and ears of the campus's well respected creative and physical events.
On the other hand, the Opinion page was the well deserved controversial section of the paper. On a weekly basis, new topics that were considered too taboo, or too thought provoking were dedicate to the campus, as to spark conversation among students. No stone was left unturned, nor was anyone or any group spared from the topics which were covered.
The opinion page dedications were not intended to point out errors and poke at them, but to motivate people in effort to correct those errors. It's similar to a hacker who exposes a loophole and then tells the programmers about it before any one does further damage.
The great thing is that people actually became motivated enough to respond to these comments in the way that the Corsair accepts public opinions, through the Letters to the Editor. It was a weekly attempt to display and ensure to the public that the Corsair was listening and was attempting to understand their opinions.
The Corsair is a campus paper, and the Corsair reflects the campus and its students. As the semester draws to an end, so does the Corsair until next semester. In conclusion, the Corsair newspaper has evolved into something that it's never been before, yet we end in the same way that other semesters have-the campus, the students, the newspaper, life is a never ending spiral of enlightenment. It's how we choose to act, and how we choose to influence that inevitably conclude our actions.