The Work Continues

Serving as Editor-in-Chief of The California Tech has meant learning that a newspaper is never simply present to itself. Each issue arrives as if final (laid out/proofed/printed/distributed), but it is also always provisional. A trace of arguments not fully resolved, conversations still unfolding, absences we could not quite make visible, and futures we did not yet know how to name.

In that regard, editing the Tech has been an exercise in responsibility to what exceeds the page. The work is not only to record what happened, but to listen for what is being deferred: the question not yet asked in a faculty meeting, the student experience not yet intelligible to administrators, the institutional contradiction that appears only in the margins.

Journalism — at its best — keeps faith with those margins. It refuses the comfort of closure while still accepting the discipline of print.

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who has made that work possible: our writers, editors, layout team, contributors, readers, critics, alumni, and the many people across Caltech who trusted us with their stories. Whatever the Tech has become, it has become through them.

It is also a joy to announce that rising senior Emily Yu will serve as the next Tech Editor. Emily, a Lloydie and ESE/HPS double major (hum double majors represent!), brings precisely the range of attention this paper deserves: scientific seriousness, historical imagination, philosophical care, and a deep commitment to the Caltech community.

As for me, I will remain with the paper next year as Editor Emeritus — an intentionally pretentious title that sounds more conclusive than it is. The trace remains; the work continues. I’m excited to support Emily and the next editorial board as they make the paper newly their own.

With gratitude and love for the written word, this newspaper, and this community,

Damian R. Wilson
Editor-in-Chief