We have seen a lot of interesting things and changes at Brandeis during our last four years. From people threatening to sue us, to someone trying to shut us down, to a bomb threat our junior year. There was also the case of cyanide in Mods, the mice in Ziv, the fire in Village. Every day just got something new. It has been a wild ride.
Our Hoot journey started a little rocky, with a campaign to shut us down from a senator on the Student Union. This club in which we had all found a home was suddenly in jeopardy. All we can say is that we are happy that he failed in his mission, or else we would not share so many memories and a Hoot family!
We also have some fond memories of drama in the Student Union, such as “pianogate.” Shout-out to Alex Chang ’22 for getting pianos in the freshman dorms; it truly made our freshman year memorable. We can’t tell you how many times these memories of freshman year have come up, always fondly of course.
And then the elephant in the room came: the coronavirus pandemic, in the middle of spring 2020. That really changed the way the rest of our college careers went. We went from mid-day drinking in the library to sharing an office with our parents, as we tried to go to class and work from home.
It definitely presented a lot of new challenges to students, from incoming first years not being able to make friends, to a lot of clubs having a near-death experience, to not being able to socialize in the dining halls, to being stuck in our rooms for our classes. Zoom classes were quite the experience, though we can all be grateful for Zoom meetings that we do not have to get out of bed for.
Coming back from COVID-19, The Hoot was in a difficult place. We had a board with only four people knowing how to do layout, a crucial part of putting the paper together. Moreover, we had several new editors who had never actually put together an entire paper. However, throughout the weeks, each and every editor has gracefully met and exceeded every challenge thrown their way. We want to emphasize that we would be nothing without our incredible board: To each and every one of you, you have our deepest thank you. You will all always have a special place in our hearts.
This year we embarked on the crazy experiment of 3IC. For the first time in Hoot history, there were three Editors in Chief. We didn’t know what to expect, but we think the three of us have really been able to create something special. We upgraded all of our equipment, finally getting new computers and a new website.
The Hoot is definitely in a much better place than we have ever been. Our board is one of the strongest boards in our history, consistently putting out over thirty articles per week. We actually leave the BMC before 11 p.m.. We don’t have issues that are 80 percent written by editors. Most of all, we have an amazing social environment and have created a place that we can call home, and a group of Brandeis students that we can call our family. Needless to say, The Hoot is way more than a newspaper club for us.
We hope the future generations of editors continue our legacy, and continue to provide coverage of everything that happens at Brandeis.
