A final letter from the editor

Author's Note: this originally appeared in the December 6, 2017 edition of the Globe, which marked my last letter as that paper's editor. 

I’ve always been far more interested in the bookends of life than I have been with the in between bits. It makes sense for my chosen field, I guess. After all, journalism professors encourage you to seek out anecdotes about turning points in your subjects’ lives.

The downside to being so preoccupied with the major twists in life is that you forget to look at the moment you’re currently in unless it’s a moment of transition. I’ve personally challenged myself this semester to not look at what will eventually be, but rather, what is actually happening in that moment.

I can’t say I’ve had much success with living in the moment, but there have been some amazing moments these past 12 months. We celebrated the paper’s 50th anniversary with an incredible gala. Our staff survived the great Lawrence Hall flood and #globetastrophy of 2017. We documented the full-time faculty union forging their first contract. We brought you stories of triumph, heartbreak and everything in between.

Week after week, I am impressed with how creative our staff is, in both finding stories and designing this paper each week. Editors have kick-started our Pioneer Public video series, an Arts and Entertainment Section and countless other flairs that have consistently raised the bar for our publication.

Have we fallen short? Sure. I personally messed up last week’s front page headline, we still have no on-the-record idea of when the Starbucks on campus will open and I’m waiting to hear back on the status of touring the Playhouse, but all in all, I would say this has been a fantastic run.

I’m continually grateful for the staff here at the Globe, my supportive friends and family and the folks who actually read the paper every week. I cannot tell you how many hours I’ve spent in 710 Lawrence Hall, but I can tell you there’s no group more talented, creative or bizarre than the people who put this paper together every week.

I would be remiss without thanking Kristin Snapp, Josh Croup, Anthony Mendicino, Dave Grande, Gina Catanzarite, Dr. Hallock, Dr. Dorsten, Dean Paylo, Caleb Rodgers, Lou Corsaro and the countless others who have helped me grow as both a journalist and administrator this year.

The impossible thing about collegiate newspapers is that this paper must be a teaching tool and a tool to inform. Our staff are all at once editors, students and teachers. We’re in a unique position in that the turnover is ridiculous, but without fail, and sometimes out of sheer spite, the Globe keeps on going. We prove every week that a volunteer army can achieve incredible things. And I’m thankful for that.

Call me crazy, but I believe we’re headed in a positive direction as a field. I feel like this campus, region and country are hungry for a group of journalists willing to go an extra mile to share the truth with the electorate, and I hope what we’ve been able to accomplish in 2017 demonstrates that the next generation of journalists are here to meet that challenge.

I’ve thought quite a bit about this bookend in my life – and while I will miss the rush of leading a team of talented individuals, I look forward to rejoining as a writer with the perspective of the whole. In the end, legacy means next to nothing at a college level.

To my incredible staff – I wish you the absolute best. You’ve taught me so much about this paper, this campus and myself. To my fourth floor Thayer sister and our next chief, Emily Bennett – I wish you calm winds, following seas and to be blessed with an amazing staff like I have been.

To Point Park – Keep fighting the good fight.

Go. Fight. Win.

Thanks for reading,

Outlook is everything: A welcome back letter from the editor

Author's Note: this appeared in the August 30, 2017 edition of the Globe. 

“We shouldn’t have to chase the ghosts of the future.”

That’s what I told my roommate a few days back with regards to his anxiety over running into someone again with the start of the new school year. The story isn’t relevant, but the advice is.

Let me be probably the 50th person to tell you: Welcome (back) to Point Park University.

By now you’ve probably had most of your classes. If you’re lucky you’ve made some great friends or reconnected with some of your favorite people. That said, a lot of unknowns lie ahead. I can’t tell you if you’ll be cast in a show or how midterms will go or if that cute girl you met in the elevator will agree to go out with you.

Here’s what I can tell you: a lot of that depends on your outlook.

Growing up, I was a really anxious kid when it came to the start of school. Even in my senior year of high school, I was nervous as to how classes would go and if I would successfully do all the quintessential “senior year” things.

What I failed to acknowledge in those moments were the opportunities that lie in a new day. Yes, you have no idea what life is going to throw at you. But the future has not been set yet, and you should use that to your advantage.

I’m still an incredibly nervous person (ask anyone on this staff), but I have learned that the best approach to the unknown is to acknowledge it and react proactively. Plan for the future, but be willing to throw that plan out the window if it doesn’t fall into place.

If you’re holding a copy of the Globe today or reading us online, that means we did something right. We’ve had major issues with the technology that we rely on to lay out the paper. All the writing was done over the summer break by our volunteer writing army. And of course, news broke that changed our coverage plan. With so many moving parts, at one point last week I wasn’t sure we would get the paper out.

Again, I forgot possibility in the mix, and the power of the team we’ve assembled. Over 50 people banded together – designers, writers, photographers, delivery folks and editors – and made this edition not only possible, but a beautiful testament to student-run and student-driven journalism on campus.

From the very first edition of the Globe, we’ve been looking for contributors from all perspectives. As we have since 1967, we relied on volunteers to contribute to us in order to put together this paper each week. If you’ve been waiting for a chance to get involved – consider this your invitation.

On my last first day of high school, Coldplay’s “In My Place” was the song playing on my car radio as I pulled up. The anxiety that had filled me that morning melted into a determination to seize the year that lie ahead.

So take this start (or restart) as an opportunity to find your place and embrace the unknown in all of its uncomfortable, quirky forms.

Thanks for reading,
Alexander Popichak

A letter from the editor: “To give the news without fear or favor…”

Author's Note: this originally appeared in the April 19, 2017 edition of the Globe.

I read an editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over the weekend about how a high school newspaper uncovered the past of their newly-hired principal. The story goes that a group of high schoolers wanted to introduce their readership to their new principal. When students researched the background of their new principal, they discovered that authorities in Dubai shut down the school she had just come from.

What struck me most about the Post-Gazette’s editorial, though, was the acknowledgement of the crucial, and at times difficult, position school-sponsored papers face when it comes to editorial choice.

I particularly appreciated this line: “There are those who think student journalists should be controlled so they don’t say anything upsetting. But trying to be inoffensive is not journalism.”

The statement is quite true – journalism is the craft of presenting important, pertinent information to an audience. In presenting the goings on of Point Park, it’s important to approach the news without fear. This is true for both journalists and their readership.

In the 1980s, our masthead had with it the quote from Adolph Ochs, the longtime editor of the New York Times, “To give the news without fear or favor…” I don’t know why we stopped including that in our masthead – it was long before my time at Point Park – but I know that that same sentiment rings true in the Globe newsroom.

Crucial to that fear and favor is giving accurate news, and owning up to your errors. We strive every week to give you exactly that – accurate student news. Have we fallen short? Of course, but every time it’s a factual error, we run a correction both online and in print.

I feel honest, transparent and accurate journalism is the most critical thing to provide to the public. Every week I am thankful for the editorial freedom this university allows us. Other than our editorial staff and the kind folks at the Tribune-Review printing facility, no one sees the Globe until we’re published on newsstands Wednesday morning.

Along with that, I appreciate the access we’ve been given by administration. Our front page story on the tuition increase is evident of the most extreme case of that. I’m thankful because as I learned two weeks ago, there are some colleges where the president has not spoken to their student press in a decade.

Could it be better? Of course. But having an open dialogue between student media and administration is crucial, because without communication how can we begin to understand one another?

I can’t help but think of the first edition of the Globe and how concise and precise then-editor Susan Trulove was in articulating the place of this newly-established student outlet. In a blurb on policy, Trulove writes, “GLOBE is also a faculty and administration ‘voice.’ Trite but true is the belief that a sufficient quantity of correct information quells rumors.”

This semester, among other accomplishments, we celebrated 50 years of covering the world of Point Park news. We’ve tried new things – briefs in the news section, graphics in our opinions section and a staff of several section editing rookies that have stepped up to the plate and impressed me.

It’s a tradition at the Globe for the editor to write a letter to our readership at the beginning and end of every semester. I look at the class of 2017 and realize just how much I’ve learned from this group of students.

On this staff alone, two current and three former staffers are graduating. Eddie Trizzino started at the online desk and has served as a feature editor for the past three semesters. Julie Griffith works as layout editor for the past three semesters. If you’ve picked up a copy of the Globe since we went to a standard five-column layout or seen the ripped paper motif that became the look of our 50th anniversary celebration, you’ve seen her handiwork.

Karly Rivera served as a features editor for two semesters and Iain Oldman served as news editor last semester.

Kristin Snapp, who took a chance on me as a freshman to join the news desk, served at the sports desk and as the Globe’s first year-long editor-in-chief in 2015.

I can’t offer much in the way of advice to our graduates other than to keep a healthy dose of skepticism in your
everyday life – don’t be afraid to question everything.

Who knows, you could think of something as simple as a Google search that sheds light in the middle of uncertain darkness.

Thanks for reading,

A letter from the editor – Celebrating Point Park’s other stage

Author's Note: this originally appeared in the February 8, 2017 edition of the Globe. The letter appeared as part of the 50th anniversary edition of the paper. 

This week’s edition marks exactly 50 years to the day the Globe was first distributed on campus. Since then, the Globe has been a part of the start of countless journalists’ careers and students have sounded off on international, national, local and Point Park-related issues.

In researching the content for the special section in this edition, we’ve rummaged through years of editions chronicling everything from race tensions to fears that Point Park would merge or close altogether.

The first edition ran with an explanation as to why the group of students answering the need for a student voice on campus named their publication  the Globe.

These students drew their inspiration from Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. The Globe’s stage  was lit using only daylight, raised so the audience could see it and was completely exposed on three sides to the audience. There was nothing separating the players from its audience and the two shared an experience rather than having a division between observers  and participants.

The idea behind the name, in essence, was that the student publication Globe would work within and for the students of Point Park. Much like the Globe theater’s openness, the collegiate journalism of the Globe was and is on display for the students of Point Park for review and critique.

Whether conscious or not, my read of the Globe’s archives has proven that the Globe has kept that same open attitude and that connection with its audience.

Most of the source material of our special section comes from the 1997 edition marking our 30th anniversary.

That edition had with it a commentary from the editor-in-chief and managing editor that gave me chills: “Maybe in 20 years, permitting that the school has not been turned into a parking lot, some editors will want to celebrate the Globe’s 50th anniversary in much the same way we are currently celebrating its 30th.”

I assure you this much: the school hasn’t become a parking lot.  In fact, if there’s anything that Point Park lacks, it’s a parking lot.  In March we’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary with a reunion of sorts that is open to current staffers and alumni.

Newspaper has this tendency to yellow as it grows old. In the grand scheme of things, 50 years isn’t that long of a time, but to a constant turnover of students, 50 years of continuity is pretty dang impressive.

You get that feeling with how frail some of the first editions of the Globe in our archives are – these copies are yellow, crumbling at the edges.

If we only looked backwards, yellow and frail would be our fate. But with each successive editor we’ve produced new editions and reworked ourselves with students always at the forefront.

I don’t know what the next 50 years holds. Honestly, I don’t know what the next 4 years holds, but I assure you this: we at the Globe are looking forward always and striving to keep our stage as large as our title implies and as intimate as its namesake.

Thanks for reading,

A letter from the editor (my first one)

Author's Note: this post originally appeared in the January 11, 2017 edition of the Globe as "A letter from the editor"

I’ve always been a fan of maps.

I can’t put my finger on what fascinates me about them, but I’ve always enjoyed the way maps look and the patterns woven within them.

Maps are physical representations of the world. The world is tangible but only as far as the horizon line allows you to see. With a map, however, you can see as far as you want – scale willing, of course.

The closest thing I’ve had to experiencing that same sense of depth a map produces was a flight to Chicago the month before I started at Point Park. Cruising at some great height, the patchwork parcels and veins of the country come into focus. In that moment you realize how small a space you personally occupy. The most striking thing in that moment is the scale and the perspective you occupy – even for an hour-long flight.

My name is Alex Popichak, and I’m going to be the editor-in-chief this year, and in case you missed the ad at the end of last semester, Feb. 8, 2017 marks our 50th anniversary. We’re excited to celebrate 50 years of award-winning collegiate journalism, and I hope that shows in the coming issues. All the while we are going to strive to keep producing the same quality content, and I hope that shows, too.

In coming up with the ideas driving the 50th anniversary celebration, I have been inspired by two things: newspaper clippings and road maps.

The concept of a road map is much the same concept as a newspaper. Maps show you not only where you’ve been but where you can go – and our pages show you where students, faculty, staff and administration have gone and where they are going.

Each story we tell or accomplishment we document is like a dotted city in a map. They’re scattered about by the club or team or office they’re involved in. Each journey to get there is either a back road or highway. In the end they’re all roads and in the end they’re all the stories that make up the Globe.

We’ve assembled a great staff of people – names both new and familiar – that have a passion for the stories they tell and share a want to help connect the dots for you, our reader.

That’s the approach we’ve set out for ourselves – within the frame of the past we’re building a picture of the future of Point Park.

From the very first edition of the Globe we’ve been looking for contributors from all perspectives. As we have since 1967, we rely on volunteers to contribute to us in order to put together this paper each week. If you’ve been waiting for some personal invitation to contribute – consider this your call to action.

This year, resolve to use your own map for whatever journey you want to take – and the Point Park Globe will be right here to document it.