To the Bentley Community,

It is stunning how fast this year has flown by! During my first semester as the Editor in Chief of The Vanguard, we’ve seen Project Haiti launch and raise tens of thousands of dollars for Haitian relief, our first campus stabbing incident, and more major renovations to campus dining facilities.

Our Men’s Basketball team returned to the Final Four while CAB announced a Spring Day so popular that the event sold out to Bentley students alone. And who can forget the April Fools’ edition  finally resurfacing?!

I am indebted to our fine staff and Editorial Board for creating an amazing set of editions this semester and I could not be more excited to get back to work in August in an effort to continue producing the newspaper this community deserves. No Editor in Chief can produce this paper alone, and I have been blessed with an incredibly strong team that gives 110% each and every week. From our production team and business operations staff to our writers, columnists and photographers, I believe I have never seen such collaboration in this organization and I am grateful for such commitment.

I must also give a special thanks to our advisors, Judy Rakowsky & Maria DiLorenzo, who work tirelessly on our behalf, as well as to all of the organizations and offices we report on and work with for all of their assistance with our reporting. We could not be successful in what we do without your help.

We will continue to report on the issues that matter to you, with the successes on our campus as well as the mistakes and failures that are noteworthy. We will continue to promote free speech and expression, and petition on behalf of the student body as well as the community as a whole in the name of transparency and information. We serve to provide you, our reader, with accurate, timely and relevant information. We will make mistakes, but always be prepared to correct them.

Of course, our Editorial Board will continue to face criticism from just about every source imaginable; students, friends, family, administration officials, supervisors, alumni…the list goes on and on of those who have written in and will continue to write, and we frankly couldn’t thank you enough for your feedback.  We grow through criticism, whether it be on our website through online comments, Letters to the Editor, Op-Ed submissions or even just a comment while one of us walks across campus, and we will always endeavor to improve our publication, because it is truly your publication. The Vanguard exists for this community, not the other way around.

I am deeply saddened to see the Class of 2010 graduate, even though they will be moving on to the wonderful and challenging opportunities they’ve earned for themselves. Our publication is losing dedicated leaders who have made this newspaper great, and we will never be able to replace a Lindsay Sauvé or Dan Ryaboy, the cornerstones of The Vanguard in terms of work and fun or Dan Merica, our brilliant journalist we will someday see as Press Secretary to the White House. To these three, thank you for your help, your guidance, your friendship and your commitment. You will be sorely missed by this organization and me personally.

To the rest of the Class of 2010, I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Bentley has prepared you well to make a difference in your community and world.

To the Class of 2014 receiving this edition at Orientation, look through these pages and see the world you are entering. Over ten years, Bentley has transformed into a world class university that you are now tasked to not only maintain, but push to the next level. Do not wait to make your mark here on campus and get involved; run for Student Government or join your Hall Council, express your passion through music, art or dance, form an intramural team or a new organization altogether. We at The Vanguard would love for you to join us as well, whether it be as a writer, photographer, or columnist for traditional newspaper work or on our business operations side, working to manage, support and expand the largest for-profit organization on campus.

No matter what you choose to do, know there is a place for you here on campus and you have some rather large shoes to fill…get moving.

I wish you all, on behalf of our Editorial Board, a safe, enjoyable and relaxing summer. See you in September!

Sincerely,

Jon McColgan
Editor in Chief