From the Editor: Meet The Runner team this fall semester
The Runner team pictured left to right, top to bottom: Devaki Mathivanan, Mikayla Croucher, Sukhmani Sandhu, Rachel De Freitas, Emma Bolzner, Suneet Gill, Austin Kelly, Christina Tran, Nyamat Singh, Abby Luciano, and Claudia Culley.(File photo)
The fall semester is finally here, which means new Kwantlen Polytechnic University students are getting used to their classes and exploring the campuses while returning students are reconnecting with previous classmates and preparing for another year of courses.
This also means KPU’s student newspaper, The Runner, returns to bi-weekly production during the fall and spring semesters. Over the last few months, a lot has changed at The Runner including how we will issue news to students.
In our new volume, Volume 16, you will notice our issue looks a little different. We have added a QR code on our Table of Contents page for easy access to our website, along with a Community and Pop Culture section.
Community is the rebrand of our previous Culture section, and Pop Culture includes more fluffy stories like album reviews, tips for KPU students, and humour. We are excited to add this new section for students to write about things that interest them, while also reporting what is going on in their community.
Pitch meetings will now be held every Monday at 1:00 pm in a hybrid format to be accessible for those who cannot make it to our office. For those who wish to stop by in-person, our office is located on the Surrey campus across from the KPU Bookstore in Birch 106.
Starting this month, we will be issuing a bi-weekly newsletter for students to stay up to date with the latest news on campus to navigate around The Online News Act. You can also find us on Twitter and TikTok, where we will soon be posting videos.
The Runner team has changed over the past few months with many familiar faces but new ones as well!
For those who don’t know, The Runner is operated under Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society (PIPS), which funds the paper and PulpMAG, KPU’s creative writing magazine. To help manage the business side of the non-profit, we have an Operations Manager, who helps assist with human resource matters, payroll, and organization.
In June, the position was filled by Devaki Mathivanan who helps the team where she can. Scott Boux was our last Operations Manager and held the position for eight years. He’s now moved onto other job opportunities, and we appreciate the work he has put into PIPS and wish him the best of luck!
Also in June, we hired Suneet Gill to fill the Community Reporter position. Gill is a third-year journalism student and reports on events and issues in and around the KPU community.
The Art Editor position was filled by Christina Tran in mid-August, a recent graduate from the Wilson School of Design, and she has created amazing art for us. Kristen Frier was our last Art and Humour Editor for numerous years and left in February. We appreciate her time with us and wish her luck with future endeavors!
We also hired Sukhmani Sandhu, our first Social Media Reporter for The Runner in mid-August. She’s in charge of creating videos for the paper and managing our social media accounts. Sandhu is a second-year journalism student and we are excited to see the work they will do this semester.
The Photo Editor position has also been filled by Austin Kelly, a fourth year journalism student who will be taking and editing photos for The Runner and will start on Sept. 15. Keet Kailey, our previous Photo Editor who had been with us since February 2022, has moved on to other job opportunities and we appreciate his creativity and the time he took editing photos for the paper.
We still have many familiar faces, including our Managing Editor Claudia Culley, who oversees editing and helps manage our production cycles. Nyamat Singh, our Associate Editor, helps the editors however she can by editing and taking stories to complete our issues and Emma Bolzner, our News Writer, covers news in and around the KPU community.
Rachel De Freitas, our Web Manager, helps with website and social media posting while also creating art. Mikayla Croucher, our Production Manager, assists with creating our physical issues in addition to creating art for the paper such as our mastheads.
The work we create and publish at The Runner wouldn’t be possible without our staff and contributors as they deliver the news and report on issues happening on and around KPU campuses.
Since more students will be returning to campus this semester, we encourage contributors and readers to stop by our office on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm and to continue writing and creating graphics for us. Those interested can email editor@runnermag.ca.
We are looking forward to meeting more students on campus this semester and sharing the news that matters most to you.
