It gives me great honor to welcome you all into another school year as I step into the role of Co-Editor-in-Chief for my last year at USM. I recognize that it’s not an easy responsibility, and I don’t take it lightly. My mission this year is to serve our community to the best of my ability and to use my position, voice, and writing to bring about change and to help strengthen our organization and our community on campus. I hope to graduate knowing I’ve made a lasting impact that will help future generations here at the university. I’ve grown to care a lot about the paper, and I’d like my time as your Editor-in-Chief to reflect that.
As I’ve gotten more involved with the paper, I find myself thinking about our history as an organization. The very first Free Press newspaper was published fifty-three years ago, in 1972. Our paper has found its success through resilience. Our staff, while highly motivated, dedicated, and collaborative, changes with each year that passes; a constant cycle of fresh new faces, ideas, leadership, and purpose. One thing will always stay the same: The Free Press serves its community by providing our students and staff with reliable and credible news coverage. Without you, we wouldn’t have stories, people to highlight, readers, or inspiration. We owe it to you to represent our communities accurately and to provide a forum where ideas and conversation can be generated.
The Free Press has had its ups and downs. After COVID, we took a major hit, but
we have rebuilt so much since then, and will continue to. We still exist because of our readers, because of our wonderful staff of students who persevere through difficult times, and through our strength that is born from struggle. A free press exists as an emblem of a fair democracy; without it, we lose communication, information, autonomy, community, speech, and power. We also lose our ability to keep institutions, governments, companies, and figures accountable.
Today, physical media is just as important as ever. Archivists, journalists, writers, and photographers have the important job of recording the history around us; capturing, witnessing, and preserving. We are in a time when our government is failing us and taking away our ability to easily access information and knowledge. Across our nation, universities are being defunded if they don’t comply with our current administration’s policies. The Smithsonian Institution is being revi
ewed “to ensure the museums align with President Trump’s interpretation of American history.” DEI efforts are being squashed while accurate historical documents are being removed from accessible resources. Federal officials are being fired for providing accurate reports that are integral to understanding how our nation currently functions. Press organizations are labeled as “enemies of the people.” Journalists are being harmed at protests and barred from entering locations. Public media is being gutted, and this affects local news stations, radio, broadcasts, and newspapers. We as a nation are losing our ability to connect with our communities and speak out against injustice when we see it.
The Free Press is run for students by students, offering print media that is easily accessible and easy to archive. Print media and local news are extremely important, yet don’t receive the funding they need; therefore, many existing outlets are at risk and are in small numbers. We hope that through our work, especially during these tumultuous times, we are able to uphold the values of exceptional journalism for our readers and to offer a place for the students of our community to understand, document, write, record, and archive the events happening around us. It is important to understand
that we have voices that we can use, that we have bodies that take up space, and we have intelligence to utilize. In a way, I’d like to represent the power and duty we all have to each other while I take on this role. I urge everyone to take time getting more involved with the communities around you and to consider using your voice to make a difference with us at The Free Press. The times we’re in are daunting, but resilience and hope will always beat dark times. As you spend your time on campus this year, pay attention to everything around you, give yourself grace, be kind to yourself and others, and understand that your education is priceless. I want to thank all of our staff who put their efforts into submitting welcome letters for this issue, for I couldn’t have done it without you. Without further ado, Good luck this year, and I look forward to sharing your stories.
