-Tim Foley

Greetings, and welcome back to The Point for the Spring 2021 semester. This semester, in addition to our typical coverage of campus, city, lifestyle and sports news, we have a lot of exciting things planned. I will introduce some of them here. 

First, we have The Leather Apron Podcast hosted by staff writers Peter Canova and Shaughn O’Halloran-Ciccolo. Here is where Peter and Shaughn talk local politics and other local happenings 

We also have The Point: Radio News Hour hosted by myself on Sunday mornings, where I will recap the campus’ last week in news, as well as talk to a variety of guests about information pertaining to the campus. 

We are also running a revamped daily newsletter led by our digital editor Nick Barrieau, who is helping The Point maintain a consistent presence for our readership. Consistency has not been evident throughout The Point’s history, so we are now looking to strike a balance and help this publication find its footing where it has not previously had in decades past. 

The Point has seen a lot of iterations over the years. Its documentation goes back as far as 1916. Since then, it has undergone a series of identity changes, including The Normal News, The College Courier, The Gavel, The Stick, and The Cycle. This leaves us where we are today with The Point, a title which has been in place since 1997. It is my hope that with the strong staff we have this semester, we will be able to add on to the long and storied legacy of student journalism at Fitchburg State, all while strengthening the brand of The Point and increasing its notoriety among the campus community, to become a staple for generations of students to come. 

One thing to know is that we at The Point understand our role within our community, and how we as a student paper have an impact on the world around us. We live in a day and age where support for local news coverage is on a sharp decline, and has been trending as such for years now. This gap in local news coverage leads to a lack of awareness of what is in our own backyards, which often has the potential to be more impactful than national news. Once local news outlets are depleted, there is not much left for citizens to read and watch but national news coverage. While serving a purpose, it is this national news that is regularly viewed through a partisan lens, lending itself to the sharp lines down which this country is divided on so many topics. The Point aims to remedy this by keeping in touch with the greater Fitchburg State community and writing stories about news that impacts those on and around our campus. 

I will conclude by thanking you, the reader, reading this publication. There is no sense in covering the news without a readership which is engaged and willing to be informed. With your support, The Point can continue to be a vessel for student journalism as it has been throughout its history, and enable young student journalists to go out and make a difference in their communities.