As the 2023-2024 academic year begins, Taylor University has seen many role changes. There are also a few familiar faces in new roles, which is exactly the case for junior Samantha Saad and senior Marissa Muljat as they take on the roles of Co-Editors in Chief for The Echo.
Last year, Markus Miller and senior Kay Rideout served in these roles, but with Miller graduating and Rideout focusing on her final year, the positions needed to be filled.
Muljat has served on the Echo throughout her time at Taylor in a number of positions. Saad has a slightly different story after transferring to Taylor last fall and serving as the news section co-editor in the spring.
Rideout is now serving as the associate editor of the Echo, helping the top editors fill in gaps when needed. She is confident in Saad and Muljat’s abilities to lead the Echo.
“I think Sam and Marissa are going to do a great job leading the Echo,” Rideout said. “Their skill sets complement one another.”
Muljat has had two and a half years of experience serving as the features editor for The Echo, which has provided her with strong insight into the world of soft news writing.
Meanwhile, Saad has more experience working in hard news. She served as the news co-editor last spring.
“I think it works well because our expertises align pretty well (and) because we both have those different kinds of backgrounds,” Muljat said, “I have more background in (soft news and) design and she has more background with hard news, so I think that helps us to work well together and divide our strengths as well.”
Saad said she believes they are working well together and is feeling good about this year. She is pumped for the year and about a few of the changes they will be making.
A few new things Muljat and Saad are excited about is expanding the length of the Echo from eight to ten pages, and looking to add a cartoon to the opinions page.
They are excited about the possibility for change as this year's Echo staff is larger than that of years past. They have the chance to accomplish more with the additional help.
“(A larger staff is) really exciting because we are able to have more voices and more opinions and ideas,” Muljat said.
One specific thing that Muljat is trying to implement is building the entirety of the Echo’s staff community. She is attempting to create a stronger bond for the whole staff by doing things such as having more all-staff events. She is excited about the potential of building a closer, more tight-knit community and team.
While it is still early in the year, Saad and Muljat are both attempting to build up the community of the Echo team.
“We definitely have a lot of ideas for pumping morale and making sure that the Echo staff has an opportunity to connect outside of meetings,” Saad said.
One thing both Saad and Muljat want people to know is that The Echo is always open to students of all majors and interests.
Saad encourages the student body to pick up a copy of The Echo, even if it is just to read one article.
“There may be something interesting for them to read, but I’m excited,” Saad said, “It’s going to be good.”
While Saad and Muljat have very different backgrounds, they have come together this year to lead a team of writers, photographers, copy editors and designers to help create a newspaper that serves as a reliable and trustworthy source of information for the university.
