Letter from the Editor

A University of the Pacific student newspaper has existed --in some form or another -- for over a century. From the first issue of The Pacific Weekly in 1908 to The Pacifican, students have been reporting the goings-on of Pacific’s campus, as well as the broader community around them. 

The paper has covered student life through two World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, the AIDS epidemic and 9/11. As news broke of a novel coronavirus beginning to spread in early 2020, The Pacifican staff pushed hard to cover its effects on our students engaged in study abroad and on our international student population. Our last print edition hit the stands in mid-March 2020 just as campus leadership announced what was expected to be a two-week campus shutdown. As the weeks stretched into months, the staff was unable to access our campus facility and unable to publish a physical edition.  For a publication that had existed exclusively in a print format, the pandemic created unprecedented challenges. 

For the first time in its history, the university newspaper experienced a major interruption. The hard work of the staff to transition to an online format was made more difficult by questions posed about an appropriate location for our website; one that would not interfere with our mission as an independent student news source for the Pacific campus. We have had some starts and stops but we are back in our new online location. It’s been a while since you’ve seen us around, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen you. Welcome!

As the 2021-22 school year begins, know that we work for you. We are committed to being the voice of Pacific’s students, to reporting what you want to know, what you have to say, what you are thinking about. We pledge to hold ourselves to the highest standards of journalistic integrity. It’s good to be back. 

Go Tigers!      

Liliana López, Editor-in-Chief