I’ve always viewed the first week of school in September as a breath of fresh air and a new start that allows for growth and change.

The Royal Purple and its staff are no exception this fall. Our biggest fresh start is our new office.

That’s right, we’ve moved.

We no longer spend our long production hours tucked behind the Down Under of the University Center, but instead we reside above ground in McCutchan Hall 113.

I will admit, when I first heard we were moving, I was bummed. I’d spent the last three years of my undergraduate studies enduring long production nights, forging lifelong connections and friendships and literally dripping blood, sweat and tears in the former office in UC room 66.

Suddenly, our home away from home was about to change. I wasn’t going to spend my last year with the newspaper staff in the office I had grown to love. But I realized this move provides us a chance to do everything all over again and create new memories and legacies for the eager journalism students who will come after the 2018-19 staff.

This time, they’ll even be above ground where we can actually see the light of day.  

Our new office, with its fresh purple paint, provides great opportunities for our staff. Being in a building with other high-impact offices provides increased foot traffic and visibility for us, which can allow students, staff and faculty to become more involved and engaged with us and the journalistic pieces our staff members work incredibly hard to produce.

I highly encourage anyone who is curious about the Royal Purple and its staff to stop by our freshly remodeled office and have a chat with our staff. Students and faculty members can also grab a copy of our paper, which hits newsstands every Monday night.

Our staff is a great bunch this year. I see so much potential in them to be fantastic journalists both within and after they leave our four walls. I want to share their lovely faces and personalities with everyone I can.

So, please stop by.

We are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and a staff member will always be there to greet you and talk about our latest edition.

While you stop by our new office and pick up a paper, you might notice the front page of our newspaper has changed a little bit. We’ve redesigned our logo used to represent our product at the top of the page. Our graphics editor, Elliot Weld, did a fantastic job creating it.

This new logo stands tall with its regal feather quill and is date-stamped to honor the history of our journalistic presence on campus. The Royal Purple has been here since 1901. A new, historically significant logo comes at unintentionally convenient timing as the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater celebrates its sesquicentennial this year throughout campus.

Along with the redesigned logo, we’ve also signed a contract with a new printer, who is located close-by in Delavan, Wisconsin. This is an exciting switch because it allows us to print from a somewhat local company—unless someone sets up shop with a printing press on Main Street.

In my experience covering some of the happenings around Whitewater during the last three years, I have learned the importance of supporting both small and locally owned businesses.

So, when we were able to implement this philosophy into our newspaper, that was a big win.

This year brings a lot of changes for our newspaper, along with a lot of fresh starts. We’ve got 117 years under our belt, and I’m honored to serve as Editor-in-Chief alongside our Managing Editor Benjamin Pierce to do our part in ushering in the next 117 years of the Royal Purple on campus.