Dear Readers,
It is with great pride that I introduce our final weekly issue of the semester. However, it is a bitter-sweet moment for me, as this will be my last issue as Editor-in-Chief.
This also marks Zula’s last issue as Managing Editor, a position she has held for nearly two years! Zula will be heading off to join the working world and I wish her all the best. It has been an absolute joy working with her over the past year. I’m sure The Octant will miss her attention to detail, sense of humour, and wonderfully blunt feedback.
Our departure heralds a new Managing Board. I’m really proud to announce that Justin Ong will be taking over as Editor-in-Chief, while Pham Le Vi and Terence Anthony Wang will be our new Managing Editors. I’ve been really privileged to work with them over the past year.
The Octant has changed a lot in its three-and-a-half-year history. When I first started we were just 12 people meeting every Tuesday night to create four pages of news and opinion each week. Since then we’ve moved from four to eight pages, tripled in size, added copy editors and even changed our name.
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the people. While none of the original 12 remain in the organization, their spirit does. Now, The Octant relies on the hard work of over thirty students. They sacrifice the time they could be spending on assignments to bring weekly discussion to the College. I know I can rely on them in the toughest weeks. I still look forward to every Octant meeting and editing session.
That said, there are always areas for improvement. As The Octant transitions from a start-up organization to a more established one it will need to find its niche. This will require experimentation, boundary pushing, and the occasional mistake. I ask for your patience during this transition, when the organization will refine and improve with every misstep. If you want to help with this, please engage with us and help make The Octant as established and respected in Yale-NUS as the Yale Daily News (YDN) is in Yale. It’s taken the YDN 139 years to get where it is today — hopefully The Octant can do that in half the time. I have the utmost faith in Justin’s, Le Vi’s, and Terence’s ability to take The Octant there. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the publication.
Thank you for a fantastic year and for your continued readership.
Yours sincerely,
David Chappell
Editor-in-Chief