Around this time last year, the previous editor-in-chief, Eleanor, proposed the idea of me joining The Varsity as News Editor. When we met at the Arbor Room, I told her, there aren’t many worlds where I’d say no. But before moving forward, let me tell you all the reasons why I would not be a good news editor, and you can decide if you still want to hire me after. 

 

1: “I have very little news experience. Okay, that’s an over exaggeration — I have no news experience.”

 

I was the editor-in-chief and a campus affairs “UC” section editor at The UC Gargoyle, so I had experience in writing, editing, and managing. I wrote about the UC student government’s financial troubles, but through articles with headlines like “the decay of the uclit,” “wtf happened to diabolos,” and “fucked by fireball.”

Ella reflects on a year of reporting. ERIKA OZOLS/THE VARSITY

I did not pretend that my writing was ‘newswriting.’ It was opinionated, vulgar, lowercase, and there wasn’t an inverted pyramid to be found. Even our “about us” section reads, “the gargoyle is not a ‘newspaper’ and we do not publish the ‘news.’ ” I had a lot of opinions and editorial autonomy — two things The Varsity news editor is expressly not allowed to have. 

 

I did have the breathless intensity of a news writer. The format was off, way off, but the curiosity was there. If anything, pivoting to news meant I didn’t have to come up with a pithy ending anymore. 

2: “I disagree with a lot of The Varsity’s policies, including the opinion-news divide.”

 

The Gargoyle’s “about us” reads, “we do not give print space to anyone who legitimizes the status quo and we do not feign neutrality on what matters to our community.” I still admire that clarity. I’ve also come to understand what The Varsity is trying to do, even when I find it frustrating.

 

The policies that make my life difficult each week don’t exist because The Varsity wants to break my spirits. Accuracy and accountability slow down the process by design.

 

There is an obscene number of people who edit articles before going to print. I didn’t fully appreciate them until I got my first angry email about my coverage. I didn’t need to just have faith in my own reporting; I could trust the layers and layers of verification surrounding me. I could be annoyed filling out a source sheet for every small fact, only to realize I misquoted a source while writing.

 

There are many Varsity policies I still disagree with, though, which is probably healthy. If anything, that tension is what drives the paper forward.

The news team were on the campus pulse. ERIKA OZOLS/THE VARSITY

3: “I’m not the biggest fan of The Varsity, and I won’t become one just because I work there.”

 

… Oh god, I’ve become a corporate shill.

 

Whether I like it or not, I’ve fallen in love with what The Varsity can become. I am in love, no doubt about it. I think about it when I wake up, before I go to sleep, and even then, I dream about it. I talk about it relentlessly.

 

In many ways, I feel like I’ll never be good enough for it. There will always be a lot of guilt at the end of the year about what you could’ve done better: the stories that slipped away, the investigations that never panned out, the emails you didn’t read, and the mountain of emails you never responded to. Because of my love for what The Varsity could be, it’s hard not to feel perpetually inadequate at the foot of the ideal. However, I cannot earnestly look back on the news team and the work we’ve done and say we didn’t do a damn good job.

 

I am so incredibly proud and grateful for the team we built in the news section. Even before our first print issue, I told Junia she needed to run for Editor-in-Chief. I was grateful for the opportunity to hire Emma as an editor on two separate occasions: for Gargoyle Politics and at The Varsity for Assistant News, and I would encourage anyone else to do the same.

 

To our associate editors, Celesta and Hilary; our bureau chiefs, Matthew, Arunveer, and Ashley; and staff writers, Devin and Han: the passion and dedication you bring to your stories is what makes news worth reading. Thank you for trusting me to edit them. 

 

There were a lot of reasons not to become news editor, good ones too. I’m just glad none of them were enough to stop me.

 

 — Ella MacCormack, News Editor, volume CXLVI