The Miami Student is act of faith in our community’s future

Hi there,

If you’re reading this page of the print newspaper, I’m sure you’re wondering why there’s no staff editorial this week. And if you’re reading online, well, this is your announcement that there is no staff editorial this week.

I decided to give my editorial board the week off in order to write directly to you all. Partly to introduce myself, but partly because I just missed writing.

My name is Tim Carlin, and I was recently elected Editor-in-Chief of The Miami Student. I’m a journalism and American studies double major, and I’ve been writing for The Student since the first week of my freshman year.

Over the past three years, I have poured countless hours, passion and even some tears into this newspaper. Needless to say, working for The Student has been a labor of love.

I say all that to say that I truly care about both this newspaper and this community as a whole. Delivering fair, hard-hitting journalism to the Miami and Oxford community has been, and will continue to be, one of the most important facets of my Miami experience.

I recently read a quote from journalist Ann Curry: “Journalism is an act of faith in the future.”

Her words stuck with me. They perfectly describe why I, along with the rest of my staff, continue to produce this newspaper every week.

We work around the clock delivering news to this community because we care enough about this university – a place we all call home – to point out both its successes and its failures.

The reality is that while our community can be amazing in so many ways that we seek to highlight in this publication, this community also has an ugly underbelly. One that meets at the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia.

But at The Student, we don’t point out this ugliness for personal gain. We report on such darkness in hopes of driving it out of our community once and for all.

Because in order to build a better community, we need to know where we are failing.

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Here at The Student, we are deeply invested in the future of this university. If we did not care about it, we would have given up our work a long time ago.

But in spite of the hardships, the late nights and the strains placed upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic, my staff continues to persevere because the work we do is not just important to us personally, but it's necessary for our community.

Oxford, along with much of southwest Ohio, functions in a news desert. The Student is the only weekly print publication in the city of Oxford. There is no newspaper offering a daily print edition.

The work produced at this publication is a vital line of information to our community.

I want my tenure as Editor-in-Chief to be marked by proof of this vitality. The next year will be full of important, local journalism for the Miami and Oxford community, just as previous years have been.

The Miami Student is an institution. We’ve been a part of this community for nearly 200 years, and I plan on setting this newspaper up for 200 more.

Thank you for sticking with us thus far, and I hope we can continue on this journey together.

@timcarlin_

eic@miamistudent.net