Despite the raging humidity, you may have felt a breath of fresh air move through the Claremont Colleges campuses this week as Claire Welch SC ’27, Madeleine Farr PZ ’27 and Nadia Hsu PO ’27 officially kicked off the semester as TSL’s fall editorial board.
The three have big plans to revitalize key parts of the newspaper: they launched new journalism ethics workshops, prioritized training for TSL staff by pushing the regular publication cycle back by one week and brought back a pre-COVID-19 tradition of publishing an “Issue 0.”
The three editorial board members also said they are focused on building writer retention and mentorship opportunities this semester, as well as long-term relationships with groups across the campuses.
“It’s really cool to see it all coming together,” Welch said. “We’re really hopeful that a lot of the changes that we’re making will have ripple effects in the future.”
Welch was born in Hong Kong, and was raised near the University of Hong Kong (HKU) campus. She said her experience watching HKU students be arrested and jailed during the 2019 pro-democracy protests deeply shaped her appreciation for student journalism and a free press.
“[People] should know what happens to communities when there isn’t press, when there isn’t freedom of speech,” Welch said. “It is important that we have spaces like this.”
Welch is now serving as TSL’s editor-in-chief after five semesters of writing and editing for the arts & culture features and columns sections, as well as serving as managing editor of arts & culture and opinions last semester. She said she hopes to increase access to press opportunities at the 7Cs, particularly because the colleges don’t have an official journalism program.
“It’s really upsetting that there is such a high financial and social barrier to getting into journalism,” Welch said. “Something that I want to leave my mark on is … giving people the space and resources to be journalists.”
Farr, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, is also in her fifth semester at TSL, having served as copy editor, copy chief and news editor before becoming managing editor of news and sports this semester. She said she resonates with the job of newspapers to capture the “first draft of history,” and appreciates how TSL has been doing so at the Claremont Colleges for 137 years.
“[Our] archives go back so long — I don’t know if there’s a more comprehensive story of the institutions that make up the consortium,” Farr said.
Farr said serving her first few weeks as a managing editor has already opened her eyes even wider to all the moving parts that go into publishing the paper each week.
“I’m realizing how much more there is to learn about TSL as a whole and its entirety and all the pieces that make it,” she said. “It’s really [working on] Ed Board that allows you to understand the full extent of what people do and how much they care.”
Hsu is entering her sixth semester at the newspaper as managing editor of opinions and arts & culture. Born and raised in Austin, TX, the English and art history major never planned on getting involved with student journalism.
“I didn’t come into TSL wanting to do journalism really, and then I got sucked in, [and] part of the reason is because I really love research and learning about research.” Hsu said. “TSL has made me understand college more and understand the purpose of research and academia … it’s a way to have what you study and care about exist in the world and in real life.”
Following her love of research, Hsu has been an editor for special projects, features and columns; she has also written for almost every section. She said she loves feature pieces in particular because they shed light on stories that may otherwise be overlooked.
“For me, the job of TSL and of these sections is not to just [rewrite] press releases or [be] longer write-ups of the events calendar,” Hsu said. “It’s to put into writing what won’t exist elsewhere.”
Farr added that TSL’s work is a part of a broader landscape of student journalism in Claremont.
“I want to debunk the myth that we are constantly competing with other publications,” Farr said. “We really appreciate the diversity and vibrancy of the amount of publications across the Claremont Colleges, and we’re just happy to be a part of that, and to encourage discourse with our peers.”
Welch said her time at TSL has shaped her years in Claremont — and her life — immensely.
“Working at TSL makes me a better person,” Welch said. “It makes me a more thoughtful person, it makes me question what I hear around campus, it makes me want to find out what my friends or what my acquaintances are up to … it feels like a gift.”
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