As I unloaded my car this year, I felt a twinge of deja vu. This was not the first, not the second, but the third time that I would be making those multiple voyages between the back of my trunk and my cozy Cushing room. I first moved into Cushing House as a freshman, and continue to live there now. But as I unloaded the boxes and bins, pillows and suitcases, clothing and computer equipment, a small feeling of sadness hit me; I don't have that many 'unloadings' left. College is a funny thing; you obsess about it throughout high school, you get there, and before you know it, you're half-way through. So, in the short span of being in school, it is important to make your mark on the institution.
Along with my fellow editors, that is exactly what we plan to do with the Miscellany News. This year will boast a number of major changes to the paper. Perhaps the most notable is our online presence:
www.miscellanynews.com — Over the summer, I pushed a major overhaul of our Web site. While our old site was clunky and outdated, our new site is sleek, user-friendly and flexible. Photos and articles can be quickly rearranged depending on the news of the day. For example, we were able to post our coverage of Fall Convocation within an hour, and soon afterwards posted a gallery of photos from the event. Very cool, considering last year, that same coverage would have taken a week to get into our print edition. The Miscellany can now be as flexible as a blog, as timely as a daily paper, but as creative as a weekly publication. This online overhaul has been incredibly difficult, but once we see it through, I believe it will revolutionize news at Vassar—and revitalize our almost 150-year-old publication.
Hopefully, my fellow editors and I will also have time to be students this semester. My full course roster is not yet decided. Thankfully, Vassar gives students several weeks to add and drop courses before having to commit. This is one of my favorite parts of academic life here, since it gives you time to find professors with whom you really click. I have, however, definitely settled on a few interesting gems. I'll be taking The American Presidency in the political science department, and then The British Empire in the history department. I'm also going to take Childhood in Modern England, a seven-person history seminar that looks really interesting. It will be a nice change to take a class on such a specific topic and develop a deeper mastery of the material. (In high school, we had to take classes spanning all of world history! No time for details.)
Overall, I'm looking forward to a fantastic year, both academically and on the Miscellany — now, which of those requires more of my time, I couldn't tell you!
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