The start of a new school year can mean new beginnings for many things: new classes, new professors, new books — though the prices are nothing new — and new friends. And as you may have noticed when you picked up this paper, The Weather Vane is new too. Our new look is the product of a semester’s worth of hard work and the desire to create a more professional- looking student newspaper.
In addition to the new look of the paper, we also have a wonderful new website to match, and we’re bringing back The Weather Vane’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Go ahead, follow us.
One major difference that doesn’t have to do with aesthetics is the combination of our News and Feature sections. The justification for this is a simple one. Because of our weekly release schedule, The Weather Vane is unable to publish up-to-date news content like many daily publications can. As a result, much of our news reads more like a feature piece.
With this in mind, we’ve combined these two sections to allow for a little bit more leeway in the way we write about timely events.
Other changes that you may have noticed are that the Style and Arts pages have been renamed to Review and Canvas, respectively. These changes stem from a desire to make the names of the pages reflect more accurately what is on the pages. On the Review page, you’ll find — surprise, reviews — and on the Canvas page you’ll find anything from photo essays to poetry.
With this new design comes an attempt to counter our inability to publish timely or breaking news. On our aforementioned website, we plan to publish campus-related breaking news articles that we wouldn’t normally be able to get out at a useful time. For those of you who do not check our website regularly — before this semester you weren’t really missing out on much — we will share breaking news articles on our social media pages as well.
In this attempt to become more professional, some of you may be thinking that this redesign will lead to the demise of The Feather Brain. To the vexation of some and the relief of others, The Feather Brain is here to stay. It is a welcome reprieve from the routine of our news cycle and we will continue aiming to bring well-written satire to EMU’s campus.
As always, we at The Weather Vane are striving to be as representative of the whole student body as we can. But this venture is impossible without you. If you see an article that resonates with you or infuriates you, don’t hesitate to send us a letter.
Additionally, if you feel that there is something we are not covering that should receive coverage, let us know. We want as many voices as possible, as often as possible.
Speaking of feedback: if you find one of our distribution sites inconvenient, let us know. Major distribution sites include the cafeteria, library, and residence areas. We want to make getting your weekly dose of campus news as pain-free and convenient as possible. Talk to us if you have an idea for an additional distribution site.
We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the redesign process. Without the hard work of those involved, none of this would have been possible. Again, because we have made so many changes, we would love to have our readers feedback.
We would also appreciate grace in the coming weeks as our staff adjusts to this new format. It has been a huge endeavor and we know it isn’t perfect, so please be patient with us and any mistakes that may occur.
If you have any questions regarding the design or The Weather Vane in general, please email us at wvane@emu.edu and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Good luck to everyone in the coming semester and enjoy our new design!
