After an intense application process, The Dial is pleased to announce its next senior leadership staff: Editors-in-Chief Lei Anne Rabeje and Olivia Weinberg and Online Editor Alexi Sandhu. Along with newly appointed section editors, this team will guide The Dial into its next stage of development, working to produce the final two issues of the year. An accomplished team of freshmen and sophomores currently in the Electronic Publishing I class will officially join the staff in September. Some of the leadership team’s goals include designing captivating layouts, enhancing community engagement, and increasing the frequency of publishing online content.

Lei Anne previously served as a staff writer in her sophomore year and as the Politics Editor in her junior year. “Being the Politics Editor during such an intense, polarized election season has been so exciting…I had a lot of freedom to use the page to express the student body’s opinions, as well as my own,” she commented.

She looks forward to keeping the student body informed about campus events and injecting elements of creativity into the designs of both the print paper and the website. Being “the voice of the student body,” Lei Anne envisions integrating more student input, artwork and writing into the paper as well.

Olivia enters her term as co-Editor-in-Chief, adding to her Dial experience as a staff writer in her sophomore year and the Assistant Opinion Editor in her junior year. She would like to increase enthusiasm for the paper and website among the community, especially by targeting viewers to The Dial Online. “I want to be able to show the other ways students can access The Dial without picking up a copy,” Olivia said. Another of her goals is to motivate the staff to produce their best work. “People don’t realize how special The Dial is,” Olivia added.

Serving as a staff writer in her sophomore year and as the Assistant Online Editor in her junior year, Alexi is no stranger to The Dial Online. Similar to Olivia, she anticipates focusing on making the website on par with the print edition, and directing viewers to a new set of rich and up-to-date online content. This year, Alexi has enjoyed publishing the constant stream of online content, and intends to supplement the coverage next year with a newsletter and other social media. “We don’t need to always put everything on Facebook,” she noted, suggesting the use of alternative platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest to reach a larger audience. Alexi also anticipates involving recent alumni in The Dial’s future endeavors.

The senior leadership team will lead an editorial staff currently comprised of 12 section editors for the remainder of the year; the assistant editors for the Arts, Feature, Politics and Science and Technology sections will be appointed in the fall. Although the nine graduating seniors will surely be missed on staff, we wish the new team all the best in the months and years to come.