Kenny Got Paid!

Well, it may have taken 1171 days, but the Tech has finally given me my long-awaited compensation. I’ve been around as one of the Tech’s editors for over three years at this point, but I can comfortably say that this paper is in the best state it’s been since I’ve started working on it. The paper’s biweekly publication schedule doesn’t require the editing team to not sleep the night before publication (Editor’s note: *), revenue from advertising is finally returning, and the pay rates have increased for the first time in decades! It’s certainly a massive improvement over the year and a half that we spent keeping the paper on life support through digital distribution.

Of course, the Tech won’t be able to stay as active as it currently is without some support! Over the three years I’ve been helping to run the paper, our biggest (and often only) obstacle in our publication schedule has been getting enough articles for us to fill an issue. There were often issues where the Editor-in-Chief would have to write two or even three major articles on their own because no one else was willing to contribute, and this was during periods of major changes in undergraduate life. Entire years have gone by when student sentiment has gone almost completely unrecorded in one of the student body’s most effective channels of communication to the greater Caltech community. My hope is that this will never have to happen again, but without the continued support of writers like you (yes, you!) it’s entirely possible that the paper backslides into being a publication that people forget even exists as its publication schedule grinds to a halt. I know from too much personal experience that this cycle is incredibly hard to avoid once it begins. The best way for you to help us stay out of it is by submitting articles so that the editors don’t have to scramble to find more at the last minute every two weeks.

We currently have a paper that people can expect and look forward to, and that gives students and administrators an honest look into each others’ perspectives. I hope that this paper will continue to bring light to issues that too often go unacknowledged or pushed off, and that Caltech as a whole can work to address its shortcomings as a result. Thanks again for the support that’s been shown for the paper over the past four years; I’ve been proud to be a part of it.