Every Monday you put a smile on my face and that to me is priceless
Dear masthead,
Hard to believe it’s already been eight months since the start of your terms, seems like only yesterday I was training each one of you on how to use WordPress. Alas, we have reached the end of our terms, the last production week of the Fulcrum’s 81st volume.
I have been at the Fulcrum for a while now, I was here when the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) imploded, I was here for the Student Choice Initiative, when we were uncertain about our levy, but nothing compared to the challenges we faced due to COVID-19.
Our masthead was the first in Fulcrum history to never fully meet in person, although we did get close — shout-out to our first meeting at Tabaret Hall Lawn where I had to scream over construction crews. We were also the only Fulcrum editorial board with members spread around Canada, which brought along a number of challenges, but with resilience, we were able to overcome them.
As the year wore on, due to lockdowns, snow and everything else that can be resumed by the colour grey, our editorial board was forced to migrate to Zoom. But it wasn’t the end of the world, every Monday, you put a smile on my face, by either endlessly roasting me about my Weezer fandom or proposing impressive and interesting pitches.
As your Editor-in-Chief, I had the chance to see all of you grow and progress as young journalists and editors. In some cases, your progression eclipsed anything I could have imagined when you were hired last April. Some of you started with barely any journalism experience and are now full flown journalists that impress me on a daily basis.
It’s also been good to hear from those who came to the Fulcrum with more experience, that they’ve also learned a lot. And I’ve also learned quite a lot myself, may it be lessons on managing people or ensuring all content is published on time and is factual.
Personally, in spite of the pandemic, I made a number of fond memories with you guys. Although some nights might have been tense in the heat of the moment, I look back with a certain nostalgia to those late nights putting the PDF editions together. I also enjoyed a number of activities we did as a group, may those have been in-person such as the time we played quidditch or virtually such as the time we annihilated the Charlatan in Jeopardy.
With that said, it was an exhausting year for all. We worked hard to get stories out in relatively short spans of time. As we know, it wasn’t the easiest year to reach sources but nevertheless, I am proud of each and every one of you and all the work you’ve put in to make the Fulcrum one of the best student publications in the country (I’m not biased at all).
I hope you all get to enjoy a very relaxing summer, don’t stress too much about your classes and make sure to enjoy a little sunshine — god do we need it.
Looking forward to my last year at the Fulcrum, I hope that all of you are as excited as I am to continue on this journey together. Hopefully, we can once again host an in-person editorial board meeting, may that be outside or in the living room at 631 King Edward, Ave.
But for now, it’s time to take a break and enjoy the warm weather. Spend time with your loved ones and for a couple of months take a break from the constant U of O news cycle. I promise I will hold down the fort, don’t you worry.
Sincerely yours,
Charley Dutil, Editor-in-Chief of the Fulcrum’s 81st volume
