Letter from the Editors: We’re Back! (And Not Clones)
Greetings Reedies, and welcome to the Fall 2023 semester from us at the Quest! While we’ve changed our schedule in a desperate attempt to keep editing nights from running into the early morning, we still look forward to inevitably staying awake to medically inadvisable hours to bring all you wonderful people the best college newspaper in the Southeast Portland area.
All joking aside, here at the Quest we understand the burden of producing a paper that is, for better or worse, the newspaper of record for a century of history on this campus. As we’ve learned from our fellow editors at the Associated Collegiate Press — Reed’s system of electing each year’s editorial board by popular vote is extremely rare (ie, we have yet to encounter another paper that does it anywhere in the US.)
It’s a privilege, in a way — we have, literally, your vote of support for the work that we do here at the Quest. But it’s also a heavy responsibility, and a constant reminder that, above all else, we serve you: our readers. So here is how we will serve you this year. We’re working to make our editing process more transparent, and opening up a journalist’s workshop on Tuesday nights in the Quest office for our wonderful contributors to stop by, collaborate with us or each other on the latest stories, and ask for our advice. We’re moving contributors’ meetings to Monday nights at 7:00 PM to give writers and editors more time in the week to work on new stories, and, as always, we’re leaving the door (mostly) open during our Wednesday editing night to preserve the transparency of our editing process, and we welcome any and all community members to stop by to learn more about our work.
We’re also investing in innovation — with a brand new overhaul to our site (reedquest.org) and new tools developed by Reed students from the ground up (to those of you playing the sudoku online this week, just wait until you see the source code for that one.) And we’re exploring new publication channels — from Meta’s Threads to our new mailing list — to make the latest news from Reed more accessible than ever.
It’s been amazing to see such enthusiasm and passion from our initial group of contributors, and our goal is to make sure every contributors’ meeting this semester is packed with Reedies eager to get started in journalism. A reminder that no prior news writing experience is necessary to participate in the Quest, so join us Monday evenings in GCC 047 to learn how you can contribute! We look forward to hearing all of your ideas for this semester’s coverage, and we are always striving to make sure that the Quest serves the student body in the best possible way.
In addition to our usual contributors’ meetings, the new Tuesday night workshops from 7 PM - 10 PM in our office are a great place for contributors to get a head start on the week’s stories. These workshops are a fantastic way to collaborate on work and get to know fellow journalism-minded Reedies.
And while we prefer for contributors to attend meetings, any work you wish to submit may be emailed to individual editors or to quest@reed.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!
As for us editors, well … look no further (and yes, we know we’re one down — we’re in the process of emergency hiring for our fifth seat, stay tuned):
Usually running frantically between classes and chugging a Yerb is new editor Lindsey Babcock. From the olden days of making silly little charts on the whiteboards in Trillium and asking to publish them in the Quest she somehow has graduated to the editorial board. Her best friend is her car, Motor (he/him), who is covered in bumper stickers and mud. She is a sophomore Biology major, English minor (because Reedies can’t just pick one special interest) and she is looking forward to meeting all of the new and old contributors of this unique publication – and as a certified people-person, she would love to talk to you!
Programmer, writer, and aspiring data journalist, Declan Bradley is entering his second semester as an editor of the Quest excited to pursue new stories and new approaches to journalism (and hopefully sleep somewhere in there). His experience includes four years at his high school paper — where he learned the dark art of immediately publishing anything that inspires the comment “you can’t publish that” — and a summer mentorship with Julia Wolfe, Americas Graphics Editor at Reuters. His writing has been nationally recognized by both the National Scholastic Press Association and the Associated Collegiate Press, but he’ll count himself happy if the Quest makes it through the semester without experiencing even a single Wursday.
The token qualing junior on the Quest this semester, Chloe Hsy is enjoying life as an upperclassman. She’s living out her teenage Hunger Games dreams in Reed’s archery class, and spending almost every free minute ‘borrowing’ her apartment’s animals and using them **ahem** caring for them as her emotional support. Chloe – upon hopefully passing her qual – is a Biology major who has been forced to learn chemistry. While she is certainly not pleased by this fact, her chemistry classes have been lovely in retrospect… all except for that very specific one that shall not be named. She is excited to continue her stint as the Quest’s design editor, and continue her fight with indesign, licenses, and honestly adobe as a whole.
Henry Kendrick is (finally) on the editorial board just in time for his nine hours of thesis reading per week, on top of classes. He also has to trudge through the rest of his Group 3 and PE requirements because he took too many electives his first two years. So when he’s not praying that he’ll have enough time to get that Film minor, he’s bringing you top-notch Quest stories that piss off as much of the admin as possible. But at least he’s not a caffeine addict! Henry is facing the oncoming tsunami with a gleeful grin and an evil cackle.
And as always, our door is always open during editing night (well, maybe not literally open, but if you knock we’ll probably let you in), so be sure to drop by and say hello!
All the best from us,
The Fall 2023 Quest Editorial Board