The 1851 Chronicle is struggling. A legacy that has helped shape Lasell for the past 17 years is hanging on by a thread. An office once too small now feels too big, our budget is slowly being cut, we lack a full time faculty member to be fully immersed in the community.
But despite all of this, the content we produce has not changed. The quality of that content has not changed.
So, why should you care?
Because there are people behind the paper. People that dedicate hours upon hours to find the stories that matter to you, the community. People that ask the hard questions. People that debunk your rumors and find the truth. People that highlight student-athletes, clubs, alumni, Villagers and more. We are students who want to learn and take advantage of the institution’s Connected Learning Philosophy.
We break stories that matter to the community and life on campus. We informed you about former Athletics Director Kristy Walter’s departure during summer break within a day. A time when we should be enjoying our vacations, spending time with family and friends, working and interning, we dedicated it to the 1851 Chronicle, breaking news and finding the truth. And when you should have been doing those things too, you engaged.
We investigate issues that are impacting student life. We conducted countless interviews, spoke with administration and searched for what was being done when students were exposed to black mold in residence halls.
We hold people accountable. We brought attention and informed the community on what punitive conditioning is and the consequences it has on not only student-athletes, but coaches.
Some may view this as bad publicity. But this is the essence of journalism. Doing your research, presenting it in a factual and clear way, and sharing the information that matters and is important to students, alumni, parents, faculty and staff is what we do.
Highlighting the accomplishments, victories and successes of the community is also important to us. Two alumni were just elected to government positions in Massachusetts, we brought that story to you in this issue. Almost every athletic team has broken school or GNAC history in the past four years, we highlighted those accomplishments for you. The university appointed a new president, renovated the Athletic Center and installed lights on Grellier Field, received a record donation for the School of Business, all of which we highlighted and brought to the forefront.
While you look forward to reading these stories and look forward to seeing your name or picture in the paper, we are struggling and need your support. We need passionate writers. We need supportive readers. We need people to be excited when they get an e-mail from us for an interview. We need your ideas and feedback, what is important to you? What are you passionate about?
We don’t just write your stories through the paper. We write the story of a 17 year legacy, led by all of the people who have come before us. We write for Marie Franklin, who worked for the Boston Globe for 23 years and saw the vision of everything that our newspaper could be. We write because of former Chronicle writers like Kaie Quigley who immediately got a job after graduating as a reporter in Nantucket, photographing Joe Biden’s visits. We write because of people like Taylor Viles, who moved to Burlington, Vt. to follow his passion of sports broadcasting at ABC22 and Fox44. We write because of people like Zac Vierra who is the Social Media Editorial Manager for the MLB’s social media team. The next time a talented first-year enters this campus, this proving ground, these learning moments, these opportunities that breed great graduates may be harder to find.
We need you all, now more than ever, to show support for the Chronicle and the legacy that it stands for. As passionate journalists, we are always going to find and tell the stories that matter, but we need you, the community, to meet us halfway.
We are not going anywhere.
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