News is our business, so The Antelope staff is familiar with constant changes in the world. Yet, as we reflect on the year, some major things have happened on a firsthand level — within our newspaper and on campus. Even after all the sleepless nights developing a new issue, or the times when the words just wouldn’t flow onto the paper, we persevered to create something for ourselves and other students.

The paper faced a major shift in the middle of the year, with our big move to University Residence South. It was somewhere that felt completely foreign — but began to build URS into our home. We put up pictures, strung up lights and began to see each other all the time in this space. The staff would stop by in between classes to finish up homework, chat or eat lunch together — thanks to the conveniently attached Louie’s Diner. We consistently produced 10 issues each semester. We take extra pride in last fall’s 24-page issue and our most-recent healthcare-themed edition.

The Antelope staff also did a lot of in-depth coverage this year. We covered campus construction updates with the Mitchell Center, Martin Hall and our Loper statue on campus. Some stories were based on campus crime and safety concerns. A few creative stories focused on environmental concerns, water nitrate levels in Kearney or the drought concerns for the Platte River.  

We achieved some amazing things for the newspaper and ourselves. In October, The Antelope staff traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend MediaFest, a journalism convention. A snafu occurred when submitting our “Big Boy” issue into awards at MediaFest: it was entered into a category meant for schools with over 15,000 students (UNK has about 6,000). Despite this, we placed seventh at the fall National Collegiate Media Awards convention in the category with higher competition. 

We continued developing the paper as a separate identity from the school. Our students were designed graduation stoles that were approved for our departmental media organizations. This means our seniors can represent The Antelope and our student radio station, KLPR 91.1 FM Loper Radio, when they walk across the stage.

The staff took measures to ensure the newspaper would continue to flourish under new leadership. This was done by holding weekly editor’s meetings to teach others how to potential story ideas. We taught important tasks related to design, writing editorials or perfecting AP Style. Our editorial staff started building “The Antelope House Style” to let future students know what campus-related language to use.

The entire Antelope staff worked together to face the changes this year threw in our direction. Yet, we’ve changed for the better, and we will strive to do so as long as there are students in our newsroom.