To the Lafayette community, 

As I reflect on this past year and write what likely will be my last words ever for The Lafayette, I feel some sadness but also much fulfillment. It has been an honor to be entrusted with informing the campus community, and an even greater pleasure to work with a team of tenacious, talented journalists that I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to call friends. 

Journalism is a demanding, and often thankless, task. This team has done all it could this year to produce a good college newspaper each week. Whether reporting on faculty grievances, students breaking world records, coaching shake-ups or the best food in Easton, The Lafayette provided the larger campus community not only with valuable information but stories that made Lafayette feel like something more than just a place where we all just happen to live and study for four years of our lives. 

To that end, it brought me great joy to see how many students, faculty and staff submitted op-eds and letters to the editor this year. This kind of engagement brought the newspaper one step closer to being the interactive forum for the community that I hoped it could be when I took over this role in the fall. Going forward, I hope to see even more of this kind of engagement.  

The next few years promise to be just as busy for the college and Easton as work continues on the master plan and the college’s bicentennial approaches. I have the utmost confidence that the editors taking over next year will continue to provide rigorous, fair and timely reporting on these developments and more. 

Maddie Marriott, a current Culture co-editor, will take over as editor-in-chief next year. A stellar writer with experience in news, culture, sports and even a bit of design, Maddie is a true jack-of-all-trades. But more importantly, Maddie is a genuinely kind, caring person and a natural-born leader. I can’t think of anyone better to guide the newsroom and newspaper next year than her. 

Emma Chen, the current news editor, will join Trebor Maitin as managing editor next year. Emma will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of a story. Trebor, with his unyielding energy and passion for good journalism, is indispensable to the newsroom. I look forward to seeing what this dynamic duo accomplishes. 

Jacob Moldover will return as business manager to ensure that The Lafayette runs smoothly on the financial side of things. 

Next year, design will be led by the triumvirate of Naomi Shertzer, Jen Parsons and Elisabeth Seidel. All three have a fine eye for detail and aesthetic and will continue making the newspaper as beautiful as it is each week.  

On the editorial staff, Selma O’Malley and Andreas Pelekis will be the News editor and assistant News editor, respectively. Bernadette Russo and Bella Gaglione will be co-Culture editors, with Natalia Ferruggia and Kristen Vincent as co-assistants. Holding down sports will be Charlie Berman as section editor alongside co-assistant sports editors Eric Ponieman and Grace Sanborn. 

Thank you to the team and to the Lafayette community for another successful year of Pennsylvania’s Oldest College Newspaper. I can’t wait to see what the newspaper accomplishes in the future.

Sincerely, 

Nathan Kornfeind