Newspapers have been in a tough spot for a while. Layoffs occur en masse. The so-called “old media”-–made up of newspapers and other forms of predominately print journalism––is terrified of the Internet, which seems to be more saturated with click- bait every day. Finally, many journalists are forced to ask themselves why they come to work on a daily basis.

From my experience working on the Campus Times, the answer to this question is both simple and straightforward. Week in, week out, we love doing what we do.

To see the time you have spent throughout a given week immortalized in newsprint and newspaper is an incredible feeling. It may sound cliché, but when you stay up the until dawn on a Wednesday night writing, editing and arguing, only to have class at 9:40am the next day, you gain new perspective.

I am pleased to say that the Campus Times continues as an unbiased, honest, student-run newspaper worth reading every week. We promise to stick to those ideals and qualities, and improve on those things that we would like to do better.

UR’s Community Principles—Fairness, Freedom, Honesty, Inclusion, Respect, and Responsibility—not only reflect who we are as a campus, but also the values we are expected to uphold in society.

I hope that our readers realize the incredible time commitment that our staff (which consists of an army of editors, writers, photographers and illustrators) puts in every week—this, in addition to staying on track with classes, extracurriculars, and undergraduate social life! It’s a laudable task and feat, and we are grateful to all of those who understand it.

The Campus Times’ News, Opinions, Features, Humor, Arts & Entertainment and Sports sections are all top- notch, and our team of editors is well-equipped to report on the events, people and issues that matter most to the UR community.

We pride ourselves on curating and editing the best of undergraduate writing and photography, and we rely upon student contributions to make this happen.

The Campus Times is about people––the people who contribute to the production of our stories every week, the people who help us and provide us with the information we need to better inform you, the people who engage with it and the people who learn something new in the process of reading with it.

With that, I’d like to thank all of the people who make the weekly production of the Campus Times possible.

We thank everyone who has contributed to us in the past, and we dearly hope to see you in the future. If you would like to get involved in the Campus Times, we would love to see you help.

This is our first issue of the year, and there are many more to come.

I have a feeling that it will be a good year—I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am.

Schaffer is a member of

the class of 2016. 



A new year, A new(s)paper

Coming to you from the makers of MelCourses, a new cluster search engine will be unveiled next semester. RocLab, the student-led team behind the search engine, is a campus organization that focuses on building  tech solutions. For the past year and a half, RocLab has been working on creating a cluster search engine to replace the University’s current system, according to sophomore Will Record, a director and development team lead with RocLab. Read More

A new year, A new(s)paper

So, you have a degree in Biochemistry and English. You served in student government for four years, clustered in Astrophysics, and speak passable German. In other words, you’re unemployed.  Read More

A new year, A new(s)paper

As the academic year winds down, undergraduate researchers at the University are presenting the results of months of work during Celebrating Research Week (CRW). Kicking off with the Research Poster Expo on April 10, the week featured events including Lightning Talks and the Research Symposium, where students presented projects across disciplines with peers, faculty, and the broader community. Read More