Column: Six Months and Over 80 Opinions Later

At the beginning of this year, Editor-in-Chief Austin Hojdar and I sat down and wrote the introductory piece to the opinion section. It was the first time any of us had tried to run an opinion section and there was no institutional knowledge on what to do. 

In that initial piece, our stated goal was “to make this section a more holistic look at the student, faculty and community experience.” On a personal level, my goal was simple: exist as a section for more than a school year. 

Six months later and this week’s batch of opinion pieces will mean 111 pieces published under the banner this year. Of these 111 pieces, 20 came from Hojdar as part of his Editor’s Desk column and eight came in the form of staff editorials. To put it in perspective, during the 2022-23 year, 45 stories were published in the opinion section. Of those, 22 were staff editorials and 22 were Editor’s Desk columns. The one story not in those categories was written by Griffin Krueger — next year’s Editor-in-Chief. 

Suffice to say, both goals were accomplished. As opinion editor, seeing this growth makes me incredibly proud. To go from effectively nothing to a vibrant and growing section is something I didn’t imagine this time last year. Truthfully, though, I can’t take credit for it. That honor goes to writers and fellow editors who made this section possible. 

The writers made this section what it is. Being a writer for The Phoenix isn’t the easiest thing in the world. You have to learn a new style of writing, go up to complete strangers and ask them seemingly random questions, and submit an 800-word draft to be torn to shreds by fellow students. I’ve described writing your first piece as being thrown into the fire and expected to swim — an analogy that makes about as much sense as AP Style. 

As an editor, I got lucky — both in terms of recurring writers and those who only wrote once. I’m exceptionally proud of the work done by these students to build this section. By my estimate, opinion saw at least 30 different writers throughout the course of the year, seven of which wrote at least three stories for the section. 

The most notable of these was Hailey Gates. Gates published 15 opinion pieces this year — the most of anyone not named Austin Hojdar. In her pieces, Gates touched on everything from abstracting musing about complexity to discussions about mental health. 

Gates wasn’t the only one to make a name for themself in this section. Writers like Julia Soeder, Elizabeth Maxwell and Marisa Panella, to name a few, filled the opinion pages week in and week out with life and commentary not seen by The Phoenix in years.

Beyond the writers, I was lucky to have a strong team of fellow editors helping me out. Almost everyone on staff published at least one piece in opinion this year and all of them sent writers to my little section. The most notable of these was the arts section. 

Out of all the sections, arts writers overlapped the most with opinion  — including the aforementioned Gates, Soeder and Panella. While editing their work was a challenge at first, given my news background, it was made easier by the sheer skill of these writers — something I attribute in large part to the work of arts editors Hanna Houser, Angela Ramírez and Xaveir Barrios. 

The aforementioned people all made this section a success but its existence comes down to just two — Hojdar and Managing Editor Ella Govrik. They were the ones who decided to re-establish this section and edited every piece. In addition, the page layout was entirely the work of Govrik — for which she won an award. 

While there are certainly columns I wish I had one more week to write and things I wish I could’ve done differently, overall, I’m content with where I leave this section. While I don’t know who will take my place, my hope is that they’ll surpass any of my accomplishments and build this section to be something I could never imagine.

Feature image by Hunter Minné / The Phoenix