This column represents the views of the Executive Committee of the Old Gold & Black. This includes Ella Klein, Editor-in-Chief, Skyler Villamar-Jones, Deputy Editor, Andrew Braun, Managing Editor and Will Kunisaki, Multimedia Director. 

Right now, the news is a never-ending doom cycle — tariffs, foreign war, appointments — a new “breaking news” headline appears seemingly every hour. These constant updates dominate the notifications on our phones, social media feeds and conversations, both in and outside of class. 

As journalism students, it’s hard to get through a class period without feeling overwhelmed. How do we keep up with everything going on? How do we grapple with the drastic changes we undergo every day? Is it even worth it to have news alerts on? 

At a minimum, it’s overwhelming. It makes people less likely to read the news. 

However, we want the Old Gold & Black to be the exception. We want to deliver the most objective view possible to our readers — that includes showing the fun and creativity housed on campus. 

This is not to say we don’t cover hard topics. Every day, our writers and editors work to purvey the news in a fair, transparent manner. Every day, we push ourselves to grow as students and as journalists. 

However, our favorite part of working at the newspaper is walking into Smith’s and seeing friends doing our crossword (always located on the back page) over cups of coffee. It’s going up to our office and seeing writers, editors and designers all try and make free throws into our Little Tikes Basketball Hoop. It’s connecting with all of our readers, across campus and beyond, and inspiring dialogue surrounding our stories. 

We know the news is exhausting. But we also know that beyond the endless political division, there are stories that highlight the positives in our community.

We have been around for 109 years, covering the campus like the magnolias. We promise to include hope, joyousness and optimism in every edition.