As a Drexel student, many things are guaranteed throughout your college experience as a Dragon. One assured fixture in Drexel University’s existence is the weekly tradition of being heckled and hounded at the Mario the Dragon statue — often unexpectedly — by a member of the reigning student newspaper on campus, The Triangle.
Why? Well, to get a copy of the new issue of The Triangle, of course! All jokes aside, it is equally awkward for both the members of The Triangle and for the passersby alike, but it is also an integral — albeit quirky — part of the Drexel campus culture.
When the world went into limbo in March, countless universities, organizations, companies, restaurants and families had to reinvent the wheel when it came to living. How can your life go on without physical, human contact? How do you live life from the confines of your home? Can you even safely get groceries?
Manifold questions have been asked, and many of them remain unanswered even months later. It’s worth noting that the pandemic will continue to drudge on in the United States, and no matter how much we gripe about it, we must admit to ourselves that our country will most likely be in the rough for quite some time.
In the meantime, we cannot rely on temporary measures that were put in place while everyone was still “figuring things out.” This means we have to be prepared for sweeping — and perhaps even permanent — changes to our way of life. It means accepting the new normal, no matter how weird the new normal may be.
The Editorial Staff at The Triangle has been figuring out what it means to be a newspaper — especially one such as ours, well-recognized for its in-person distribution and accessibility — and how to keep people reading. We can continue to improve our digital footprint, expand our social media outreach and produce content that is truly impactful for the Drexel community.
But a newspaper is known for its nitty-gritty personal touches just as much as the content itself. A newspaper is depicted in a myriad of classic movies with its antiquated, smoke-filled newsrooms, copy editors poring over the newspaper proofs, the editor-in-chief worrying about deadlines and headlines, editors fretting over formatting and sizing and their writers not getting them their articles in time.
Newspaper offices are filled with human interaction and discussion. Newspaper distribution is predicated on human interaction.
For The Triangle, we are known for getting our weekly paper published in time for the Friday morning upswing, and we do our best to get the paper into the hands of as many students and staff as we possibly can before the week is over. We drive around in a rickety golf cart and hand-deliver our papers to the various buildings and residence halls on campus. We stand outside in the cold and the heat to give you our paper, and we make sure that even if we are behind schedule, we get it to you in the end.
Over the past several months, things have looked so different for us.
We hope to get back to doing what we do best — continuing the long Drexel tradition of sharing a print copy of our student newspaper with the rest of the campus community — one day very soon. In the meantime, we ask that you continue to support your newspapers and read what we write. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something new or laugh just a little bit.
While we wait for that day to come, we will continue to write, update our website and hope for the best. Our commitment to keeping the Drexel community informed is and will always be our biggest responsibility and priority.