Happy finals week everyone. With this being our last issue until the next semester, we wanted to end on a positive note and reflect on everything that we as a university – and as a paper – have accomplished throughout the semester.
First of all, the university finally reached a decision with the full time faculty union.
After protests, faculty gatherings, student demonstrations and lengthy negotiations, the university and the faculty found a path to negotiating an agreement for their new contract.
On the Community Engagement side of things, the university created a new community garden behind West Penn Hall with the help of students and instructors. This is a big moment for the Department of Community Engagement, along with moving the Pioneer Pantry to a larger location in Thayer Hall, providing a convenience store-like space for students to pick up food and goods.
Pioneer Vision 2030, a plan by President Brussalis to improve the campus and prepare Point Park for the future, continues to be realized with the opening of new centers, the completion of the new Professional Career Readiness Center as well as directly addressing yearslong student issues.
In the athletics department, we have moved from the NAIA’s River States Conference to NCAA Division II sports in the Mountain East Conference.
As Point Park continues to try and improve, so does The Globe.
It doesn’t take a sharp eye to see what changes we’re making just this semester. We finally retired our old masthead and replaced it with one that makes this newspaper something our campus community can be proud to read.
We will continue to make The Globe nicer to look at – a good newspaper needs to deliver the facts, tell the stories that need to be told and be visually appealing both in print and online. From our editors to our staff writers, we have all worked diligently to improve the paper and this isn’t stopping next semester.
Despite that, there is still work to be done for both the university and our newspaper. Communication with administrators to students should not be a hassle and when concerns are brought up, they need to be listened to.
We are not perfect – after all, we are all just students learning to get through our potential careers of choice. Even though this is just the practice round, that’s still no excuse for subpar work. Misspelled words, cut off stories and photos that straight up look bad should stay uncommon in our publication.
At the end of the day, you should also be proud of yourself for what you’ve accomplished this semester. A university education isn’t easy and if you’re taking part in extracurricular activities and clubs (which you should be), be extra proud of yourself. You’ve got a fully stacked plate and still managed to tackle it all.
We will continue to take great interest in changes within the university because that is just one part of our job. You, the reader, should conversely take great interest in the changes we make at The Globe.
It’s you, the reader, that we want to make a positive newspaper reading experience for. While we hold others accountable, you should hold us accountable as well.