At The Prospector, we are used to changing. It happens all the time and in every facet of our industry. We are a college newspaper that mirrors the professional newspapers and publications we strive to be like.

Each semester we have staff that comes and goes, whether it be contributors or editors, people come and people go. But at the end of the 2018 spring semester, we went through some big changes.

Changes that only happen every so often. For starters, our former director and advisor, Kathleen M. Flores, retired after 16 years at the helm.

She dedicated each and every day to the job; teaching us, the students, the who, what, when, where and why of the job, while overseeing student media as a whole.

Her impact on our publication and her positive influence on the work we do as college journalists cannot be summed up in a few paragraphs.

“Kathy,” as we affectionately called her at the office, will be missed in more ways the one. Luckily, for the staff, Veronica, our advertising director, who has worked at Student Publications for the past 15 years is taking over.

Despite losing such an influential figure in our publication, we are retaining and gaining another great leader to take us down a new path.

That said, the change in Director is not the only change that has occurred when you were on vacation. We went through one of the biggest staff turnovers in recent memory.

This semester we welcome in a new, energetic, young staff that is ready to offer fresh insights into student life here at UTEP and all the new happenings in the borderland.

And to go along with the change in staff, our actual paper is different! So long fold over. We hope you enjoy the new layout as much as we do.

Lastly, this summer, we did not have printed editions. It was a sad but fitting reality of journalism today. It’s pretty simple; the money is not there and the support for journalism is not what it used to be.

But that does not mean you should stop reading The Prospector. We still want your support, need your support, and value your support.

We will continue to publish daily, regardless of whether we are printing or not, and we strive to keep up with the times; integrating multimedia and social media into the content we produce.   

And by you, we mean all of you. We hope for continued support from the Division of Student Affairs. We hope for continued support from the students, professors and faculty who pick up the paper on Tuesdays. And we hope for renewed support from the Department of Communication, more specifically the multimedia journalism program.

We are always in the need for contributors and students who want to gain practical writing experience outside of the classroom. Without your support, we’re not as good as we can be, but with your support, we can be a great publication that mirrors the great work that is being done by great journalists out in the professional world today.

Javier Cortez may be reached at [email protected].