With the spring 2024 semester in full swing, Ben Lauren PZ ’25, Ansley Washburn SC ’26 and Elena Townsend-Lerdo PO ’26 have officially taken over TSL’s editorial board. Elected last December by members of the previous editorial board along with a larger hiring committee consisting of TSL senior staff, the trio will help guide more than 100 staff members over the next five months as they continue to put out a weekly paper at the Claremont Colleges.
Lauren, TSL’s editor-in-chief, is an English and Media Studies major from New York City. His involvement in journalism extends all the way back to his freshman year of high school, although it has far from faded in the years since.
In addition to holding the position of editor-in-chief at Pitzer College’s “The Outback,” Lauren has previously served as both a sports editor and a managing editor at TSL. Reflecting on his work last semester as managing editor of Sports and Arts & Culture, Lauren explained that he was excited to return and continue the work that he started.
“One thing that I learned last semester was that it is kind of difficult to accomplish all the things you want to accomplish in one semester,” he said. “I really wanted to step into this higher position to take charge of some of the ideas that I and also my other two members of ed. board last semester started.”
In saying this, Lauren referred in part to TSL’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) committee, which was established last summer as part of an initiative to create a more supportive and diverse community both in the newsroom and in the greater 5C community. This semester, Lauren hopes to expand the DEI committee and to give it more structure.
Washburn, who will serve as this semester’s managing editor of News and Sports at TSL, is a prospective Politics major originally from Boston. Having served as a sports editor at TSL for the last three semesters, Washburn described TSL as being an integral part of her college experience.
“I came in first semester freshman year and have watched myself grow [at TSL] and have really started to love it,” she said. “I think I really love working with people at TSL and meeting new people from around the 5Cs and it’s just become a really great community. For me, that kind of defines my college experience and I’ve loved that.”
Townsend-Lerdo, TSL’s new managing editor of Arts & Culture and Opinions, is a prospective History major from San Francisco. In the past, Townsend-Lerdo has served as both opinions editor and special projects editor at TSL. Passionate about college journalism, she expressed her excitement at being on this semester’s editorial board.
“I think [college journalism] is super important because it holds a lot of potential to present accurate news and to hold institutions of power accountable,” Townsend-Lerdo said. “[The college newsroom] is a really cool space where we can have that coverage.”
Lauren noted that this semester’s editorial board differs from previous editorial boards in that their experience lies largely outside of News and is centered more so around the Sports, Arts & Culture and Opinions desks.
“I think we’re kind of bringing a new perspective to ed board that we maybe haven’t seen in a long time,” Lauren said.
Taking advantage of this perspective, this semester’s editorial board hopes to elevate all sections of the paper and promote unity and collaboration within TSL.
“Previously, we’ve been pushing for excellence in our respective sections and have maybe missed out on opportunities to maximize relevance and timeliness by working together,” Townsend-Lerdo said.
In addition to this goal, TSL’s new editorial board is looking to expand the publication’s Business and Social Media desks.
“Social media is the main way that our students actually engage with our content and it’s something, in the past, that we haven’t prioritized as much,” Washburn said. “We want to be able to cater to our audience and really have them engage in the way that they want to engage.”
Lauren expressed his confidence in the ability of this semester’s editorial board and overall staff to reach these goals and grow the paper as a whole.
“I think we’re already putting together a really strong team,” he said. “We have a lot of interesting, diverse viewpoints [across our staff] this semester, I think maybe even more so than any semester has had in the past.”
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