Letter from the Editor: Step Up

I was in the CPJ three years ago when the campus burritos were still worth buying, when campus concerts were exciting, and when I thought Happyland was a myth. The group voted on its ultimate outcome: to officially move to a web-based, and then to a web-only publication.

All I could think was, "Oh. Hell. No."

Cooperpointjournal.com was really only created two years ago. The first version had "Hello" surrounded by pixelated rainbow lines. Thankfully, we've changed it about a billion times since then, and we're finally content with its design. When it was just a twinkle in our eyes, we thought, “what if this were the future? What if we made this so good that people had to pay attention to it?”

In 2009, we were woefully obsolete. People had already made web-only publications, but they were nothing more than web versions of print papers-- they hadn't moved off the page. But for a college newspaper? We still had the chance to be innovative and ahead of our time.

Very few college newspapers have officially gone completely online. Many magazines and alternative-weeklies have done it, but we’re really ahead of the curve. It’s odd for Evergreen to be ahead of the curve in much, but at this we have succeeded.

However, as I’ve said before, we need your help.

Through combing the CPJ archives (which span back to 1971), I have found that student participation with the Cooper Point Journal used to be much higher. What happened? It used to be that the CPJ would publish 8-10 letters to the editor per week.

Do students not care? Do they not read the publication? Do they not realize they can respond? Do they understand that the CPJ depends on student participation? Do they know what a rhetorical question is?

The Cooper Point Journal is a rare student publication in that it relies heavily on student participation. The CPJ doesn't use wire services (such as the Associated Press), and publishes only original content. Other sources cover the world, the country, the state, and Olympia... but only we cover Greeners. The CPJ would be nothing without general student input and contributions. How do we encourage students to participate at the level they did in 1978? Is it possible?

For this transition to work, the CPJ is calling for your submissions. We are asking you to participate in ways you never have before: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, our website... even telepathic communication, if that's what you prefer. We accept contributions and comments from all students at cooperpointjournal.com, and everyone can comment on our social media sites.

We know that students are on social media all the time-- why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to dialogue with other students about their contributions? We know you're not doing that seminar reading anyway... so you might as well share your voice.

We’ve come a long way as an organization to have a significant online presence, but it’s time.

It’s your turn, Evergreen. It’s time. This is different from TESCTalk. This is an actual online publication, and it’s yours. Own it.