Letter from the Editors:

Eighty years ago, a group of Lewis & Clark students gathered for one reason: to start a campus publication. Almost a full century later, The Pioneer Log is a bustling student newspaper that has informed, challenged, entertained and engaged the Palatine Hill community. Our newspaper has undergone a number of transformations, but throughout it all, we have remained dedicated to producing the highest quality content while remaining dedicated to our journalistic ethics. 

From the foundations built by these very first students, our newspaper has come to cover eighty years of events and speakers on campus, as well as in the Portland area. The articles that you see on these pages report on some of the most significant occurrences at LC, providing a brief snapshot into life on Palatine Hill. It is clear that many of the same issues that currently plague us have impacted the LC community members before our time — history repeats itself in nearly uncanny ways.

The Pioneer Log has been built upon decades of shared knowledge. Each new generation is educated in the journalistic process through information and advice handed down from Editor-in-Chief to Editor-in-Chief. The Pioneer Log would not be the reckoning force that it is today without all of the hard work from the editors who came before us. We are grateful for their guidance. 

Every organization has parts that it would cease to exist without. For us, it is our editors and contributors. Week after week, our editorial board toils tirelessly to brainstorm potential story ideas and edit content. The editors gather every other week to create each newspaper page manually using Adobe InDesign, a process that regularly lasts late into the morning hours. And every semester, our newspaper is lucky enough to attract a variety of writers, photographers and illustrators whose contributions allow The Pioneer Log to represent a variety of voices. All of the articles and visuals that we publish are produced by these wonderful members of the LC community. 

However, our newspaper is always striving for the most accurate, widespread coverage possible. Anyone is welcome to join our newspaper, regardless of journalistic experience or background. If you are at all interested in writing articles or contributing visuals, there is a space in the PioLog for you. 

More than anything, this newspaper is a labor of love. None of us would be here today if we did not hold a special place for student journalism in our hearts. Here is to 80 more years of student journalism. We hope you will come along for the ride.

You can get involved by emailing piolog@lclark.edu or by coming to one of our staff meetings, held every Monday at 5 p.m. in J. R. Howard 133. 

Ihsaan Mohamed is the Editor-in-Chief and Aubrey Roché is the Managing Editor of The Pioneer Log.