Letter from the editor

Originally published in Volume 150 Issue 7 of the Dalhousie Gazette on January 12th, 2018 

I am somewhere around the 100th editor-in-chief of the Dalhousie Gazette. I’m the growing loose end of a long thread of excellent writers, editors and creators who’ve taken the helm of this publication and steered it in the direction they felt was best.
150 years of publishing is a milestone I’m humbled to be apart of.
The Dalhousie Gazette is the oldest, longest-running campus newspaper in North America. We’ve been an independent news source on Dal campus since 1978.
Published in March 1978 the Gazette reported on itself: “Gazette editor Valerie Mansour said ‘as a student press we have to critically assess the performance of council and this cannot always be done properly if they are our publishers. Financial control gives council editorial control. If we were independent we could deal with a publishing board whose only interest would be the publication of the paper.”
Which is exactly how we’re run now; independent of the DSU and independent of Dalhousie University. We’re run based on the levy that each student pays to be a member of the Dal Gazette.
We’re run because of the students, for the students; sometimes, with a struggle but we’ve published at least eight issues for 150 years of Dal’s 200.
“The Dalhousie College Gazette is to be conducted mainly by students, under graduates, and graduates of the College,” reported the first editors in our firs-ever issue. “Our first issue we must please, labours under some disadvantages, owing to our not having received in time, several interesting articles from among ablest of our contributors.”
This still happens 150 years later, and it’s still all about the students.
It’s the students of Dalhousie who make the news, create the news and know what the news is – and should be.
The Dalhousie Gazette is here to let students have their voice heard and make a difference; we’re here to help foster the next generation of journalists and activists who have the ability to decide how the new and ever-changing scene of public media.