Editor's Letter

February 13, 2004

Dear Pleiad readers,

On behalf of the Pleiad staff, I want to thank you all for your patience during this past month while we’ve been working on some exciting changes. Our major changes have been switching pagination software and redesigning The Pleiad layout. My major goal as editor is to make The Pleiad truly representative of your student voice. I want to hear your ideas for stories, comments on stories we run, and ideas on how to improve the paper. Most of all, I want to encourage everyone to write for The Pleiad.

The biggest change we’ve made is moving from PageMaker to InDesign pagination software to redesign the paper’s look. InDesign is one of the most used pagination programs in today’s news industry. It is easier for staff members to work with and allows the Pleiad staff to familiarize themselves with software that they can apply in the journalism profession after college. Using InDesign, our graphics editor, Jason Kennedy, worked diligently to create a new Pleiad design that gives the paper an up-to-date, appealing, and easy-to-read style.

The Pleiad has also become a member of the Michigan Press Association for students, allowing current and future Pleiad staff to receive MPA newsletters, obtain advice from legal counsel, attend annual MPA conventions, and enter the annual college advertising and editorial contest.

January 30-31, Pleiad advisor, Laura Williams, Pleiad managing editor, Tiffany Juliano, and I attended the MPA convention in Grand Rapids. We went to a variety of workshops that gave us great information to bring back to The Pleiad.

On Feb. 7, we held a journalism workshop entitled “The Write Stuff: Reporting, Interviewing, and Crafting News and Feature Stories,” which was hosted by professionals from Michigan State University, Oakland University, and The Oakland Press. There was a great student turnout, and I look forward to having these students write for the paper.

Our other goal for The Pleiad is to have deeper coverage of how students feel about national and political issues. We invite you to submit columns with your views on current national issues and how they affect you as Albion College students.

Become active with The Pleiad, whether it be writing letters to the editor, writing articles, or submitting story ideas. The Pleiad is your student voice. Let it be heard.

Autumn M. Dodge
Pleiad Editor-in-Chief