Wednesday, September 12, 2007

We've Only Just Begun

Dear Readers,

Welcome back to school! It's a pleasure to meet so many new people and reconnect with old friends.

This will be my last post as a MiddBlog editor. I am transferring ownership of this blog over to Sarah Franco '08. You may know her from the leaf-logo debacle fame in which she led the charge staying updating on hundreds of students and alumni voicing their concern to the administration. In fact, that is why she is an ideal editor for MiddBlog: her strong relationships with the administration as well as key students on campus give her a unique perspective to investigate alternative news stories. When she works at something, her energy is tireless.

MiddBlog has developed into an alternative news outlet of sorts, and I hope it continues down that path. Over the past 11 months, MiddBlog has opened connections to many people in the Middlebury community, and I'm infinitely grateful for that. Some of my strongest connections have come from first reporting negatively on an aspect of Middlebury, then working with faculty, staff, and students to build even stronger institutions. For example, one of the most fulfilling items was working with the Bookstore and its manager Bob Jansen on improving services (the bookstore is probably the single most improved entity at Middlebury College within the last year) but also on improving the Bookstore's image. It's very telling that a staff member would value a student-run blog.

With the administration starting their own attempts to reach out to the community, it has become increasingly apparent that communication at this school is in dire need of something larger, more inclusive, more extensive. I hope to shift my focus to working on ways to move past niche communications to aggregating areas which even more students will find useful.

Thank for the hundreds of comments and tips over the months. I wish Sarah and a new team of writers best of luck on their adventures this upcoming year!

With gratitude,

Ryan Kellett '09.5
Middlebury College

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

congrats on what you've accomplished!

-an "avid MiddBlog reader"

on the books...