This year’s volume has already felt different. 

Ever since 50 students broke into the gated King’s College Circle and set up the “People’s Circle for Palestine,” this News section has taken on more than usual. As a team, we’ve had to roll up our sleeves, conduct on-the-ground reporting, and consistently stay on top of encampment updates to accurately cover this watershed moment in U of T’s history.

Since May 2, our team has published 19 articles covering everything from live updates in the earlier days of the encampment, U of T’s decision to issue a trespass notice to the student protesters, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granting the university’s injunction request, and students packing up peacefully after agreeing to an amnesty deal.

For us, student journalism goes beyond just highlighting issues at our campus. This year, we seek to preserve accountability, prompt discussions on important topics, and ensure representative coverage of equity-seeking groups through our reporting. As students in a world that’s constantly changing, we face personal, cultural, and ethical issues in our daily lives. It’s our job as the News team to shed light on these issues in a way that’s accessible to our university community. 

As we step into our roles as News Editor, Deputy News Editor, and Assistant News Editor, we want to prioritize stories that matter to our student body. Our goal for the News section is to continue pushing forward our approaches to equitable work and highlight communities across our campus. 

We know that the News section can often feel daunting from the outside, which is why we want to not only improve our readability but also our engagement with new writers. We plan to make our editorial processes more transparent so our section and paper can keep growing as the news evolves and changes. We’re also planning to continue exploring new forms of storytelling, such as improving our video content and social media presence. 

Importantly, The Varsity is a tri-campus paper for all of U of T. As such, we hope to bolster our connections with the UTM and UTSC communities to make the many campus voices feel heard and represented. We’re excited for this upcoming year and hope to make it a volume worth reading. 

News Editors

Volume 145