Last Word

Twenty eight issues, hundreds of articles and thousands of words. Eleven statewide awards. More corrections than we’d like to count. And now there’s one edition of The Temple News left for this school year – the one you’re reading.

We’ve covered everything from Project Brotherly Love – the city program to absorb Hurricane Katrina evacuees – to the debate over academic freedom on college campuses. For the first time, our staff held a press conference with President David Adamany and we had a one-on-one interview with Gov. Ed Rendell.

We’ve covered a winless football season and the first Temple women’s basketball player – Candice Dupree – to be drafted into the WNBA. We’ve covered the retirement of men’s basketball coach John Chaney, a Temple icon for a quarter century who will be revered for far longer than the time he spent at our university.

We’ve covered how AIDS affects young people and how a Temple speech therapy department helps transsexuals master the voice change. We’ve reviewed some of the most popular restaurants in the city and we’ve outlined how some students buy diamond-cut molds for their teeth.

We endorsed a slate campaigning for the Temple Student Government election for the first time in a long time (to the chagrin of some) and we gave you our opinion about the many transitions Temple has undergone during the past several years, which were spearheaded by President Adamany.

Speaking of our president, we covered his retirement, as well as the retirement of the president of our Board of Trustees.

We’ve tried our best to make those stories – and the hundreds of others – as interesting as possible. We’ve tried to compliment our content with visually appealing layouts, graphics and photographs.

We’ve also tried to trim our budget shortfall by watching our expenses and by selling ads at a blistering pace in hopes of getting into the black and getting on newsstands more than once a week.

And although we stayed up late most Monday nights – 2:30 a.m. at our worst – putting together the paper, had some newsroom disputes and went through our share of ethical dilemmas, most of us would say without a second thought that we had a blast.

To us, that’s likely what matters most. Though we want you, our dear readers, to be challenged, amused and entertained when you pick up our newspaper, we want us, the people who contribute to this product, to be satisfied with how it was put together.

So please know that as you’re reading this space’s final words – at least for the next few months – the people who wrote them are making every effort to better our product from the inside out.

Twenty eight issues, hundreds of articles and thousands of words. Hundreds of contributors, thousands of readers and one last word.

Thanks.