This year’s volume started off differently than most. Our news coverage began at King’s College Circle at around 4:00 am, where we proceeded to cover students’ 63-day pro-Palestine encampment for over two months. It ended with our extensive reporting on U of T’s four student unions — including candidate profiles, debates, and sit-down interviews with the current presidents.

We wrote to you at the start of the year detailing our commitment to making a volume worth reading. Throughout this year, our News team has worked tirelessly to bring you accurate, thoughtful, and timely coverage of the stories that matter to you. 

In a year filled with threats to the freedom of student publications — from student unions’ efforts to shut down their campus papers to legislation preventing student publications from using social media — the need for student journalism has never been more clear. 

Since May, we’ve published over 170 articles. 

We’ve reported on student concerns across our campuses, from the future of the UTSC Campus Farm Coordinator’s contract and poor building conditions at the Faculty of Music to tri-campus issues, such as transit, food insecurity, and mental health.

We’ve covered advocacy efforts, such as protesters returning to King’s College Circle for a back-to-school rally, students protesting the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s “culture of harm,” and faculty members being called into their Dean’s office for supporting Palestine on social media. 

We’ve even been there to report on historical moments at the university, like sitting down with U of T President Meric Gertler for the last time and announcing Melanie Woodin — U of T’s first woman president — named as his successor. 

Our reporting has held institutions accountable, amplified student voices, and informed our community about issues affecting them.

As we look ahead, we’re excited to see the incredible journalists who will take our place and their commitment to delivering quality journalism that serves you. 

The Varsity has been a home for each of us, and our roles as News Editor, Deputy News Editor, and Assistant News Editor have shaped us. While we’re sad our time is over, we’re excited for what lies ahead.

We thank our three Bureau Chiefs: Urooba, Razia, and Matthew for their hard work in covering our UTSC, UTM, and graduate student communities. We also thank our three Associate News Editors: Damola, Asmi, and Sharon. They’ve each spent countless hours putting together timely pitches, conducting interviews, and writing up articles.

We also want to thank our wonderful senior copy-editors, Ozair and Isabella, for taking hours out of your days — and nights — to look over our articles. To Ajeetha, our Managing Editor, Internal, for your extensive knowledge and care you put into every piece. And a special thank you to our Editor-in-Chief Eleanor, we truly could not have done it without you. 

Finally, we thank all of our contributors and readers for not only advancing our coverage but taking the time to read our content. We encourage you to keep reading, questioning, and contributing to our reporting.

Here’s to another year of news worth reading.

— Selia Sanchez, News Editor

James Bullanoff, Deputy News Editor

Olga Fedossenko, Assistant News Editor

Volume CXLV