Parting shots from outgoing EIC Julieanne Acosta

May 2 2024—

If you ever want to fully immerse yourself in the unpredictability of life, you should try being the editor-in-chief of a newspaper. Let me show you why.

I genuinely believed at the start of my term that it would be a fairly easy, smooth sailing year. After spending two years as a News editor at the Gauntlet, I felt pretty confident that I had seen it all — but man was I wrong. Regardless, as I go through the story of this crazy, chaotic year, the silver lining shines bright.

First of all, just as the editorial board had really found their footing and we were ready to start the Fall semester off with our first magazine of the term, FROSH, we learnt that our Instagram and Facebook accounts were getting blocked as a result of Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act. A controversial bill — Bill C-18 was meant to get major tech companies to compensate media organizations for hosting Canadian news content on their platforms. In response, Meta decided to simply not host the content — and just like that, all the work that had been put in by not only my editorial board but the preceding ones as well was gone. To add on to this as a fun fact, when Meta blocked the Gauntlet on their platforms, I wasn’t even in Canada and thus I remained blissfully unaware of the situation until I came back.

Upon my return, the editorial board and I were conflicted about the next steps forward. What do you even do in an evolving situation that none of your predecessors dealt with? Well, we decided to use our own personal Instagram as much as possible and try our hand at going viral on TikTok (which hasn’t happened yet).

Once again, as we had started to move forward from this fiasco, the state of the world took a turn and now I was running a newspaper during a time of such conflict. Balancing this while trying to protect the rest of the editorial board was a lot, to say the least. But what brought me out the other end was exactly that — the editorial board — so please, bare with me as I have my Rory Gilmore graduation speech moment.

The whole Gauntlet staff is truthfully what kept me afloat. Having the privilege of leading this team is something I will always cherish (despite the amount of times I joked about quitting).

To our news team, Eula Mengullo and Nazeefa Ahmed — I don’t know who else would’ve been able to hold down this fort as gracefully and efficiently as you two did. I am beyond grateful that I got to work with you both (again).

To our Opinions and Humour editor Valery Perez, this was not an easy term but not only were you able to run such strong sections and manage multiple difficult situations, but you did it while also raising a child (dog).

To our Arts and Science editor, Ansharah Shakil, I was blown away by how you hit the ground running. Your passion for these sections is so clear and you ran your sections so smoothly.

To our Sports and Lifestyle editor, Rodrigo Verney, the only one of us that ever really understood what was going on in the sports world — your knowledge and enthusiasm about it was such a joy to watch and read about in your writing.

To our Voices editor, Reyam Jamaleddine, thank you for taking on this section and treating it with such importance. Your heart to uplift and magnify these voices is incredible.

To our Visuals editors, Sylvia Lopez and Daman Singh, I can’t imagine not having you two run the visuals this term. Both of your imaginations and talents is beyond inspiring (I mean look at the cover of this article).

To our Volunteer coordinator, Dianne Miranda, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you were the perfect fit for this role. Your inviting and warm prescence on top of your organization skills truly stregthened our volunteer base more than I could’ve imagined.

To our Layout editor, Ramiro Bustamante Torres, even though I was meant to guide you during this term you truly guided me instead. Thank you for the time and wisdom you gave me throughout this term.

Last but never least, to our Business Manager and Online Editor, Gurman Sahota and Masoud Karimi, this whole organization would quite literally crumble without you both — thank you for putting up with every SOS text I sent you this term (there were a lot).

I am so grateful for this experience and I cannot wait to see where the Gauntlet goes from here. Being able to be part of the growth of this team and this organization was a blessing and it’s something I could never forget.

—Julieanne Acosta, Gauntlet editor-in-chief