To the Wellesley College Community,

We, the editors-in-chief and members of the editorial board of The Wellesley News, are writing to summarize the changes we’ve made to the paper this past semester and the plans we have for the coming year.

This semester we have successfully introduced a multicultural column to give minority students on campus a voice and a space dedicated to their thoughts. Multiculturalism in an issue the Wellesley News is dedicated to and hopes to improve both on campus and within our staff. In addition, we have started a monthly letter from the current Dean of Students, Dean Wolfson. We believe the newspaper is an excellent tool of communication between the administration and the student body. This column helps the Dean of Students communicate their intent and initiatives to the students as well as engage the students with administrative decisions.

In addition, we have added an extra section on the last page of our paper. This section is titled “Miscellanea”, where we feature satire pieces, photojournalism, crossword puzzles and other pieces that will showcase our writers’ many talents. This will give The Wellesley News a chance to engage our students in a different and entertaining way.

Our campus experienced many new developments this semester, and The News had the privilege of covering all of them. A few of these major changes include the election of a new president and the compensation of residential life staff. One issue, however, particularly engaged our staff. In light of the recent debate regarding payment for College Government positions, we at the Wellesley News are fully aware that students need to start being compensated for the immense amount of work they put into their organization. Organizations with guaranteed percentage funding have that funding because they are integral to the school. The executive boards of those organizations put anywhere from 6-20 hours a week into making this school a better place and thus, should be compensated. Editors-In-Chief at the Wellesley News each put in 15-20 hours a week, completely uncompensated. There is a precedent at other universities to pay their student journalists either through work study, funding or with a lump sum. By choosing not to pay students involved with such organizations, the college puts these individuals at a disadvantage — many are financially unable to dedicate so many hours to unpaid positions. We’ve seen this problem affect many students on campus this semester, and luckily, have begun a dialogue to address these concerns. We hope to see progress in the near future.

Lastly, The Wellesley News has created a new column for mental health in our Sports & Wellness section. As our incoming President Johnson has pledged to address mental health, so has our campus’ publication. We believe that a column will increase mental health awareness within our student body, and we will be making concerted efforts to do so.

We, the editorial board at The Wellesley News, have had the privilege of serving the campus for the 2016-2017 school year, and look forward to improve our reporting in the coming year.