A Southern Newspaper edition from 1958.

The Editorial Staff | Sept. 7, 11:07 p.m.

As the staff celebrates a return to the newsstands, we would like to introduce to you your college’s student-run newspaper, The Southern.

It has been exactly 100 years since The Southern, along with the College, arrived here on the shores of Lake Hollingsworth. It’s been a long two years since The Southern printed a physical paper, being cut in 2020 due to budgetary restrictions. But, in a truly rare revitalization of a student-run paper, the physical news has officially been restored to our campus. This, in the age of a shrinking physical news presence nationwide seems monumental, but it is actually quite a small thing, yes—as small as our paper. 

We publish every other week, we are from top-to-bottom run by students with an interest and passion in journalism, and are over the moon about writing for you all this year. 

Newspapers like ours exist at private and public universities. Every respected institution of higher learning has one, as small as our own or one as large and reputed as Rory Gilmore’s Yale Daily News. We are an integral part of a thinking culture. Some have moved completely online, such as University of South Florida’s The Oracle, and others, as ours happens to be, remain in print—some for even centuries to date. 

Our goal at this newspaper is to report to the student body the core information they need to be informed decision makers. Whether it’s what’s good to eat in Lakeland or who is running for Student Government, you can flip through our pages and, it is our hope, be enabled to make the best decisions for yourselves possible. 

Some things to keep in mind as you read and react to our stories: 

Remember that we are students with you. We enjoy a summer sabbatical, just as any other student. And as studious as we may be, no one at The Southern is error-free. We are students learning the fundamentals of quite a difficult discipline, and like other students, we make mistakes. Not often, but they happen. Our mistakes occur in public and come with much detriment: we smudge quotes, misspell names, forget citations. We are happy to correct The Southern’s words when needed, and it is our hope that the student body will hold us accountable for these errors when they arise. 

Also remember that you may contribute. Our student-run newspaper is exactly that: run by students. Every word written is by a student, the fact-checking is done by students. The stories themselves are brainstormed and chosen by students. If at any point you sense the need to express an opinion, or feel the want to join our staff, contact us and we’ll guide you to exactly where you want to be. We are a voice for the student body, and have existed in this role since 1918. 

From our staff to the rest of FSC, we wish you all a wonderful year. Read the news!

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