Editor’s Note on Inheritance

The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.

            -William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

The Centenary Conglomerate is a paper buckling under the pressure of history. It’s obvious we have failed to live up to our potential as the “Voice of Centenary.” Very few know we exist. The unique combination of challenges facing us today has made it harder than ever to create a paper our community can be proud of. However, the antidote to our struggles can be found in the purpose written 104 years ago.

Introduced in 1922 as a college weekly, our name continues to conjure the original intent behind the paper itself: “to promote, encourage and make more secure that bond of friendship between student and teacher.” While we still wear the name proudly, those that fall short of our purpose have failed time and time again.

During one particular episode in 1970, the Editor-in-Chief attempted to change the name of the paper. While well within their power, they refused to consult anyone part of the union we set out to serve so long ago. Poetic justice ensued, and they were no longer Editor-in-Chief in the coming semester. At the end of the day, we were created as the voice of Centenary, and there have been times we have made seemingly deliberate attempts to fail the calling.

From the current staff’s limited perspective, our current problems stem from COVID. While trying to recover from the world-shattering pandemic, the staff signed a deal with the digital devil and turned away from physical issues. All issues would be uploaded to our website, and our website alone. No more physical papers. Since then, they’ve become a novelty to be enjoyed once a year. This has proven catastrophic for both our numbers, and overall campus morale. But our current struggle does not end there.

Like a disease sweeping across all Centenary clubs and organizations, our team is incredibly young. Our staff is overwhelmingly comprised of Sophomores. While not a unique staff structure in the annals of our paper’s history, it still stands as a major hurdle to our ability to live up to our purpose. Despite our youth and our self-imposed digital shackles, we intend to both revive the union this paper exists for and expand it to meet the demands and challenges of our particular moment in history.

We live in a complex place. Shreveport is a lot of things, and rarely is loved on the list. Living under titles like ‘shit-port,’ hatred for home runs high. Those that grow up here can’t wait to leave, and those who stay are met with confusion and sneers by those who left. We are victims of a history out of our control and the subjects of a city incapable of loving itself.

Our city’s history is something citizens have struggled to reckon with since before the inception of our paper. Even in the first issue, they harken back to Centenary existing, and struggling to exist, through Civil War and Reconstruction. Labeled “Bloody Caddo” by historians for its incredibly high levels of racial violence, Caddo Parish became one of the most segregated areas in the country. Compounded with generations of poverty, our city continues to wear this history on its face and in its veins. This past has not evaporated, and we continue to live in both the fallout and the midst of it.

While this is a complicated diagnosis we could never hope to heal entirely, we believe our journalism can act as an important catalyst for change. As it stands today, we are suffering from a journalistic dry spell. Current local papers, newsrooms, and magazines are treading water. Set on serving advertisers and local elites, it should come as no surprise that much of the city is left underserved. Add the interests of the city’s younger population, and Centenary students are at the perfect intersection of being underserved by local media.

Again, our paper cannot be a complete remedy to this. However, because of the incredible support by Centenary and the Student Government Association, we are uniquely poised to serve the underserved. We will cover our city, our school, and our students to the best of our ability. Much like Bossier City’s rebrand states, we live in an area “on the move.” Our city has historically left the underserved behind and our paper intends to fight this through the revival of our conglomerate of students, teachers, and citizens.

On a more personal level, Centenary itself is a school in the crux of change. Every year brings a slew of new problems to add to the pile of old. Wherever our articles take us, we research, interview, and write with the love of Centenary at the forefront of our minds and pens. When the school approaches mistake or folly, as it tends to do from time to time, it is our duty to speak out and push in the opposite direction. We will critique through a love of Centenary.

We are not only inheriting a paper this semester, but a school, a city, a history, and a purpose. Make our conglomerate of students, teachers, and citizens stronger than ever by letting your voice be heard. Thank you, and we can’t wait to get started.