Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers of the Herald,

Welcome back to the Colleges, and a warm welcome to the Classes of 2026!

We are back for another fall semester; for some, it is the first of many lasts, and for others, it is the start of a new chapter in their life. The beginning of any semester is always an exciting time, but there is the feeling that this semester will be special. We welcome President Gearan and his wife back to the Colleges after a five-year absence; we are celebrating our Bicentennial as an institution, and for the first time in what feels like forever, there is a sense of normalcy that has been missing since the pandemic. This is not an exhaustive list, every day, students and faculty around this campus do things that are worth celebrating, but sometimes they are not given the recognition they deserve. Our goal at the Herald is to highlight those unrecognized actions and bring attention to the things on this campus that we feel the community deserves to know about.

The role the Herald has always served and will continue to serve on this campus is as “a voice for the students.” In my time at the Herald, I have seen what being “a voice for the students” really means. Each member of the Herald and each Editor who came before me views our role differently. For me, though, being a voice for the students means we have a duty to report on what the students want to hear. To every student, we want to listen to your stories, your complaints, and anything that you think the rest of the community deserves to hear. The Herald is a platform for students to broadcast their voices and share their stories, and if anyone is interested in sharing that journey with us, then we cannot wait to hear what you have to say.

I am looking forward to this coming year as the Editor of the Herald, and I cannot wait to see what it brings. This is just the first of many meaningful issues to come, and my hope is that our community here at the Herald will only grow larger as the year goes on. I cannot do this alone, so I must give a lot of credit to every person who has contributed to this edition. Thank you to everyone who is part of the staff, shows up to the meetings, or picks up an edition when they come out. Without all of you, the Herald would not have been around for 142 years, and I hope that as long as HWS is an institution, the Herald will continue to fight the good fight that is student journalism.

Sincerely,

Paul Janes

Editor-in-Chief of the Herald

Additional Note: The Herald does not cite Yik Yak as a journalistic source and will not so in the future.