In my final weeks as the Publisher of the Campus Times, I am writing “The State of the Campus Times” — a report on the progress and challenges of our student-run newspaper — for the final time before handing the baton to the next Publisher. This semester, we focused on revamping the structure and operations of the CT. Many unexpected crises have impacted how we’ve run as a paper since the beginning of the semester: the backend of our website broke down due to updates, our stands disappeared in various locations across campus and Rochester, and some of our section emails became inaccessible. Despite these crucial changes that impacted our functioning, we’ve continued to make progress.
Our website took the largest hit. For weeks certain sections of the website could not be accessed, which required the help of University administration to fix. With much effort from the team, the website now runs properly, albeit without featured images and illustrations. We are grateful to our staff and readers for being patient while we work on fixing it.
We have adjusted our distribution of physical papers to a more sustainable number: 2,600 papers per print edition. It was not an easy decision to reduce our editions, but while reorganizing the papers in the office over the summer, we also saw the surplus of papers with 2,800 copies, and we had to cut the number down in hopes of printing a number that is closer to our readership. Our papers continue to circulate around River Campus, the Medical Center, College Town, Eastman Campus, and various locations downtown.
We have also had a sharp increase in new writers this semester as well as copy editors. When I joined the CT editorial team two years ago, we lacked a team of copy editors, relying solely on the Copy Chief. Now, however, with more copy editors, our productions go more smoothly, allowing for less edits during the final stages of our print production nights. Print productions have struggled to finish before midnight for as long as I can remember, so throughout the summer and the beginning of the semester, CT management has brainstormed ways to finish before midnight on those nights. We are proud to say that we believe we have cracked the code. Our productions now reliably end at or before midnight each print production.
Our editing process has become more comprehensive: now we have split the editing process across both Saturdays and Sundays during print productions, which led to fewer errors when articles reach the layout stage.
In addition, we hosted three workshops, including a journalism training workshop with UR Professor of writing Melissa Balmain, and an opinion writing workshop with Editor-in-Chief Emireta Alyssa Koh. These workshops allowed writers to build their news- and opinion-writing skills.
While navigating these large changes had not been in my Fall 2025 Publisher bingo card, I am glad to be here to help smooth the wrinkles in our operation before I finish my tenure at CT. I am extremely proud of our management team this semester, including our Editor-in-Chief, Natalie, who had to transition into the role quickly but did so effortlessly. Lastly, I am confident that my successor will continue to do great things for the CT and I look forward to seeing how the Campus Times will grow in the future.
