Hey there, reader. I hope you’re enjoying our first issue of 2020, which, in addition to being quite good, marks an alarming personal milestone. And no, I don’t mean that this is the thirteenth issue of Vanguard, although that is a very spooky number.
No, what’s truly scary is that with this issue, I begin my fifth year as a student journo here at BC. It’s been a pretty dramatic lustrum on the national stage, to be sure, but BC’s been rocked by scandal too these last five years. I’ve covered marches and protests; interviewed politicians and personal heroes; bore witness to the meteoric rise and fall of YPA; and, perhaps most importantly, got away with putting a literal vagina on the front cover of Kingsman.
Over the past five years I’ve evolved as a reporter, from a timid cub to a grizzled veteran of the CUNY news beat. Now, with just four months left in my academic career, it’s time to move on to the final stage of any journalist’s life cycle: washed-up opinions columnist.
I know what some of you are wondering – “Quiara, don’t you have any shred of self-respect?” (No, but continue.) “Why are you wasting your time and talent peddling hot takes in the most worthless sector of the news biz?” Honestly, I share your disdain. As my good frenemy Dani Kogan over at WBCR likes to say, opinions are the lowest form of news. And they take the oxygen out of the room (and steal column inches) from important reporting. My gears are thoroughly ground every time Twitter characterizes The New York Times not as a source of vital local news coverage but as a vessel for Bret Stephens word-vomit. (If ever there was a man deserving of those initials…)
So why spend your last semester ever writing an opinions column? Well, I’ve had a lot of time to think about Brooklyn College during my time here, and I’ve had literal years to formulate my opinions on some of the most pressing subjects on campus – progressive politics, $7K or Strike, tenure troubles, and everything in between. And I’ve found that my perspective from these issues often differs from the mainstream. Which sounds weird, given that Vanguard is about as mainstream a news source as you can get on this campus, but up until now I’ve tried to avoid using my platform to air my personal opinions. Now that my time with Vanguard is coming to an end, though, and I have a staff I trust to take this paper into the future, I feel like I can finally truly express how I feel about this fine educational institution, in the form of some nonchalant yet truly incendiary hot takes.
Because I truly am… Low Qui Savage.