Well, Hoot readers, this is goodbye (at least for now). Congratulations to all of the graduating seniors who are reading this. We hope you have enjoyed your time at Brandeis overall, and what we have published in particular. As for the rest of you, we’ll see you in the fall. Since this is our final publication of the semester, we have decided to take some time to reflect on the past year and share our thoughts.
James: What a year it’s been! This year, I wrote 19 articles for The Hoot, took on a leadership role within our organization, and even had the chance to interview President Levine. Our greatest accomplishment, though, was that we transitioned from a newspaper into a news magazine. I thought that it would take some time to figure out how to pull off such a major change (something that Jenna still brings up to this day), but, thanks to Jenna’s unending optimism and insane dedication, we were able to get our first issue out as a magazine after just two weeks of the semester. Now, I may not have these grand visions for the future, but thanks to Jenna, I’ll take over a rejuvenated publication and attempt to keep the vision of The Hoot alive for another semester.
Michael: I still can’t believe that after four short years, this is the last issue of The Hoot that I’ll ever have the pleasure of copy editing! Being a member of this publication has been the most fun I could possibly have. Yes, there was a lot of hard work involved and yes, we did have to deal with varying amounts of bullshit, but overall, The Hoot has been a very chill, relaxed place where the student body can truly find its voice—I have edited articles that range from the informative to the hilarious to the incredibly unhinged, but all of them were amazing to experience. I look forward to handing off the Hoot to the next generation! Speaking of—OOOOOOOOOH YOU WANT TO JOIN COPY EDITING SO BAD OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH
Richard: What can I say about my first year at The Hoot? Well it feels as though it is over before it could really begin. I was happy to revamp the sports section and hope to continue with “So You Think You Know Ball?” It was a pleasure working with so many great people and it will be sad to see Jenna and Michael go. The paper won’t be the same without Jenna’s superb stewardship and production night banter and Michael’s diligent copy editing. There were many great memories made this year at my time at The Hoot, but perhaps my favorite moment is when my grandma told me she read my article on the website. After my initial shock that anyone actually checks the website subsided, I was really touched that my eighty year old grandma, who has cherished reading my stuff for over a decade, was able to see my work under an official school banner. Stay tuned as we go beyond basic ball knowledge next year, as I hope to write articles about destigmatizing ultimate frisbee and a deep dive into quadball.
AJ: I’m a first-year, so this was my first year working with The Hoot, and I had a great time. I didn’t write any articles as the layout editor, but since this year was a transition to a new medium, the staff gave me a lot of freedom to work out some designs. It was definitely a start, but Jenna being an amazing Editor-in-Chief talked it out with me and we got The Hoot to where it is now. It’s been fun and I’m excited to see how next year goes. Everyone should join The Hoot!
Jenna: Well, since I kind of answer this question in my farewell article, I’ll leave some fun tidbits here. Something I’m looking forward to seeing after I depart The Hoot is how they continue to innovate the magazine format! I think Anna Jane has some great ideas about moving us into the more creative fun layout space and getting away from that traditional essay style, so I’m excited to see how that evolves. I also think that Richard is taking sports in a new, fun, and inclusive direction for us non-sports fans so I hope the column continues to grow the sports section in this tone. I also really enjoyed doing the Fizz posts and cop calls columns, so I look forward to seeing if any new columns come up! One column I wanted to do but never did was a street style spotlight where we publish outfits of the week. Also I never did figure out the secret to the Sherm Jasmine Rice at home so if someone wants to gift me a step by step explanation with brand names as a going away gift please do lol. Finally my favorite memory is probably one of the many times James and I stayed up too late and had to walk back around two a.m. and it was snowing and James didn’t have a jacket and I had like six layers on—classic. Also shout out to Michael; I will miss his travel and movie recommendations that I genuinely did follow!
