File photo. Our offices are located inside this building! (Abbeywood / Wikimedia Commons)
Welcome back. Do you feel properly welcomed? Great!
I guess I can’t really leave it there, can I? No. Well, alright then. For those of you who do not already know me, my name is Emily Diehl, and I am the Editor-in-Chief of The Quill. This is my second year in the position; previously, I held the position of Assistant Editor-in-Chief during the 2011-2012 school year. I am a music student, studying voice: this is my fourth (and hopefully final) year.
Now that you know me, let’s move on: The Quill has been Brandon University’s student-run and student-owned newspaper since 1910. We used to be a subsidiary of BUSU, but gained autonomy in 2005 and became our own corporation. We have, over the years, published in various formats. This year, we will be publishing weekly, as well as publishing online at our new website (thequill.ca), which we launched last year. We are also looking into a mobile app, as well as moving into e-readers such as the Kindle.
We are currently seeking reporters, artists, and photographers. We publish student-relevant news, information, and opinion pieces. Once a year, in our April Fool’s edition (The Swill), we publish fiction … usually satire … sometimes it’s about Meryl Streep. If you would like to receive tuition credit for your work, please send me an email at eic@thequill.ca, or come speak with me in the office.
If you ever have any concerns or questions about what you read in The Quill, whether in print or online, please do not hesitate to contact me immediately. We are YOUR student newspaper, and we are therefore accountable to YOU. So hold us to the highest standard you possibly can.
A new and very exciting initiative we are pursuing this year is a partnership with Assiniboine Community College. Last in the 2012-2013 academic year, we put a newspaper stand in the cafeteria at ACC’s Victoria campus; this year, we are aiming to get articles from ACC as frequently as possible. There is also the possibility that we may venture into the realms of video: ACC has a thriving multimedia journalism program, and we just know there’s talent in media here at BU, too.
We are also aiming to expand our social media presence: you can help us there by liking “The Quill” on Facebook or following us on Twitter (@quillbu).
It’s never too late to get involved with The Quill, and once you do you’ll find that we’re a close-knit community of friends who care about each other. Staff meetings are fun and convivial: we even have a Christmas party, and there have been rumours of laser tag… you don’t want to miss out, trust me.
If you’d like to get involved with The Quill, send me a message at eic@thequill.ca or drop by the office (leave a note if no one is in). You can also show up at our staff meetings, which will be Mondays at 5:00 pm for the foreseeable future. If you’d like to be on our mailing list, send me an email (do I need to repeat the address again? no? good) and you’ll get weekly (or more frequent) updates on what’s going on in Quill-land.
We’ll have a table out on Club Day: you should come say hi! We love to hear back from our readers and we’d love it even more if you came to work with us!
Republished from The Quill print edition, Volume 104, Issue 1, September 4, 2013.