Well, here it is: my final Sunflower column as the paper’s editor-in-chief.

This is something I have been thinking about since I made the decision not to seek another year serving as editor. And I have been dreading it.

Luckily, this is certainly not my goodbye to the Sunflower — I am returning in the fall as a multimedia journalist, my primary roles being covering student government and administration. I’ll also take photos for many of my own stories and shoot video when applicable.

That being said, it feels odd knowing this editor gig comes to an end after our paper Thursday. So, I’d like to reflect on the past year we’ve had at the Sunflower, one I think is one of our strongest.

The big stories

We’ve covered some huge breaking news stories this year. From an alleged rape occurring at Shocker Hall three weeks into the semester, to the assault of a woman in Fairmount Park, to changes coming to the Grace Memorial Chapel, the staff has covered stories that matter.

I can safely say that I am proud of the work ethic of this staff. These people put in countless hours every week to get the news out to the campus, and every time, the coverage has been accurate, fair and representative of all sides of the issues. The level of professionalism exhibited by this staff is equal to the standards expected in the news business after college.

Awards

We continued our streak of grabbing several awards at the Kansas Collegiate Media conference, held last month in Wichita. The Sunflower took home a grand total of 37 awards, with 35 individual awards. Our next editor-in-chief, Shelby Reynolds, was named Journalist of the Year in the four-year university division.

In addition, we received top honors in the overall category, grabbing both the gold medal and the All-Kansas award, the highest award given to a Kansas college newspaper.

I was not at all surprised when we were given so many awards. This staff does a phenomenal job covering the news, and those awards show it.

The future

While not everything is set in stone, I can tell you that big changes are coming to The Sunflower.

Besides having a new editor-in-chief, the paper is changing the way we present the news to the university. This includes how often we print. Rather than printing three times a week next year, we will reduce our printing cycle to twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.

This does not mean we will report fewer stories. In fact, our plan is to have bigger issues and a larger web presence — especially with multimedia. We will function more like a real newspaper by no longer relying on our print cycle to present the news. Stay tuned for more details in the fall.

Final thoughts

This has been a great year. I’m so incredibly proud of this staff for all of its accomplishments.

We will continue to grow. And I hope you all stay with us as we continue to tell the news of this campus.