In the wee hours of 8 October 2013, Panopt was born. There was little kicking and screaming, and sounds of ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘ahh-ing’ soon accompanied the blue and orange papers on elevators, notice-boards, and common lounges. It was a smooth delivery.
Panopt started out as an academic newsletter under the Vice-Rector’s Office. We no longer exist in that capacity.
We hear your voices – a newsletter that simply praises its institution without critical thought has outlived its usefulness to the community. Moving forward, Panopt is an autonomous school newspaper that is committed to free speech and critical discourse. Discourse is essential for any community, and Panopt is a platform for this to occur.
As with any baby, problems arise when they start teething. We don’t know how the shift from two to 14 staff will work out; neither do we know whether our weekly distribution rate will be sustainable. But we face these problems willingly because it marks the way forward. We may fall, but we will get up better and stronger. We care deeply about serving the community, and vow to constantly improve, issue by issue.
We cannot do this alone. This semester, we are immensely blessed to have on board with us a group of talented and passionate individuals. We extend a warm welcome to our new staff members:
Associate News Editor | May Tay
Associate Sports Editor | Raeden Richardson
News Reporter | Yonatan Gazit
Sports Reporter | David Chappell
Features Reporter | Kavya Gopal
Features Reporter | Regina Marie Lee
Opinions Reporter | Kaushik Swaminathan
Designer | Angela Ferguson
Web Master | Iwani Mawocha
Business&Distribution Manager | Alex Pont
Photographer | Christopher Khew
Photographer | Pareen Chadhari
You will hear from them in this issue and following issues, and be simply blown away, just as we were and still are. More importantly, we need you, our readers. To our faithful readers the past year, thank you. A newspaper without readers simply does not exist. Help us make PANOPT yours just as much it is ours.
Enjoy the first issue of this semester!
Joyan and Spandana
Managing Editors of PANOPT