Like many others, I will graduate in two weeks. Unlike many others, I will take a one-week break and immediately start up classes again as a graduate student. I am coming back to Tech for another year to pursue a Master’s in Electrical Engineering, staying in the comfortable cocoon of academia for just a little bit longer.
I am lucky to be given the opportunity to further my education here, but the additional year (or two) that I will spend at Tech has also allowed me to do something I never thought I would do until very recently: become Editor-in-Chief of the Technique. It is scary to think that instead of helping shape the vision of the current Editor-in-Chief, I will be the one guiding my staff to build on the plan I have created. It’s a challenge I willingly accept. It certainly was not a challenge I envisioned taking on as a first-year.
Back then, I only thought about all I could get out of the paper. Taking articles would improve my writing ability, passes gave me access to the press box for football games and of course, the meetings and events provided enough free pizza to make my body course with marinara sauce. I’m sure many other freshmen had the same attitude toward new activities, usually joining a club because it could be fun.
As I familiarized myself with the paper and took on more responsibility, I saw there was more to the paper than going to a ton of basketball games and free food; it was an institution that represented the student’s voice. I started to shift away from the selfish motivations I may have had when I first joined the Technique. The paper had given me a great deal, but what could I do in return? It was the main question I asked myself when I set out goals at the beginning of the year for what I wanted to accomplish for the paper.
But now, on the eve of a new year of the paper under my leadership, I shift my attitude once again. Not only am I asking myself how I can help and improve the paper but how those goals relate to benefitting the Tech community. After all, you, the reader, are the reason why the Technique is still here nearly 100 years after the first issue printed.
So I ask readers to tell us what you want to see in the Technique. You can affect change without being a writer or a photographer or an editor. If you see a story happening and developing. What we may have missed, tell us. If you think we provided unfair coverage of a campus event, write us a letter to the editor. Even if you want to voice your displeasure over not getting enough slivers, we want to hear your valid complaint (preferably inside of the sliver box). Even if it seems that we are staying silent, we are always listening to whatever you want to say.
I must thank my predecessors and all they have done to influence me. I have worked under four different Editors-in-Chief, each very different from the others. They have put their stamp on the paper in a way that I have been given the chance to do. I hope this editorial board can continue to produce a paper of the highest quality and live up to the standard that has been set in the past.