Dear Readers,

Congratulations on your approach to the conclusion of the fall season and semester.

Whether you are a community member reading this at one of the numerous Platteville businesses that receive our newspaper, a faculty or staff member of the university reading this in your office that shelters you from the confusing weather or a student at the university procrastinating on the studying you have for your finals, trying to take a break in a clamorous semester – I wish you my kindest regards.

This semester has been busy for the Exponent as we, like many other organizations, attempt to balance the intricacies of safety precautions with the yearning for sociability and functionality of the post-lockdown, ongoing-pandemic world in which we live and operate.

Our office in Warner Hall had been closed since March 2020 to all except for the essential executive officer roster; even then, we limited our room capacity to four officers for safety precautions.

In fall of 2021, with mask requirements and increasing vaccination rates allowing for safer in-person interactions, we opened our office doors for our weekly business meetings, production nights and our officers’ office hours.

With our cautious restart of operations, the Exponent has been able to enjoy, once again, the enthusiasm and skill of our volunteer reporters, copy editors and our nearly full officer roster.

Excitingly, our executive board for spring 2022 features some new names and faces: Nick Wagner, Managing Editor; Natalie Downie, Chief Copy Editor; Veronica Hausser, Social Media Representative; and Justice Corpora, Chief Layout Editor, who joined us mid-fall.

But as much as it is exciting to move forward, it is equally essential to look back and reflect upon the time that has passed since the pandemic has started.

In the Exponent, various students who had finished their college careers in spring of 2020, fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 had not received the celebrations of their final production nights or end-of-the-semester celebration. Students who had been aflame with excitement to write and edit were given Zoom links and meetings instead.

I believe the feeling can be best described by a simple, five-word quote from Emily Steinberg’s comics “Ring the Bells” about the suddenness of the pandemic and its effect: “And we have become undone.”

Now that time has passed, we as individuals and we as a community may begin rebuilding what has been undone, but I believe that we, in both senses of the term, may only do so if we proceed cautiously and safely.

Thank you for a great semester. We will see you in the spring!

Sincerely,

John Rodwell

Editor-in-Chief, the Exponent