Former and current Leader members reflect on The Leader’s journey through COVID-19

When much of the world went on lockdown in the spring of 2020, The Leader followed suit.

Marisa Karpes, The Leader’s editor-in-chief from 2020-2021, recalled the week everything shut down.

“It was so sudden, just one second in the newsroom hanging out with everyone and collecting story ideas, and I just remember the last meeting we had before everything shut down — it was like we were all in Old Main, and we were like what’s going to happen?” Karpes said.

Karpes led the staff fully online throughout the 2020-2021 school year through virtual meetings and digitized issues. She noted that this made it a little more difficult to have natural conversations but said the staff handled the situation well overall.

“We were really good about having our cameras on and seeing each other because we wanted to still see each other, but I think a lot of that just natural conversation got kind of lost, and it became more of a formal meeting of me trying to probe people for stories,” Karpes said.

During that school year, the staff covered campus protocols, did student check-ins on how students were feeling throughout the situation, and wrote editorials reassuring students.

Looking back on the situation, Karpes felt taking a break for the spring of 2020 and then continuing to publish online only was the best decision given the circumstances.

“As members of the press, we have a responsibility to inform our audience and be there for them, but we were also at the time students still going through this really confusing period and almost surreal period thinking back on it, so I think it was good that we took that time to put ourselves first too as students and make sure that we could push through to the end of the year,” Karpes said.

Senior Samuel Shulman, a current staff writer, understood The Leader’s decision to break from publishing issues during the spring and summer but felt some additional online publication could have been beneficial.

“Maybe a way to keep students connected to each other was having an online platform like a blog, like submit ‘What have you been doing during Covid?’ ‘Are you excited that Elmhurst is opening back up in the fall?” Shulman suggested.

Shulman said he’s glad The Leader moved online when it did.

“It would have been the best because at the time, everybody was afraid to touch anything,” Shulman said, noting how restaurants handled the situation similarly by offering QR codes to menus.

Eric Lutz, The Leader’s current advisor, said his main priority was to keep The Leader running throughout COVID-19, but The Leader staff exceeded his expectations. He noted how multiple other events were occurring, such as racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd and the election, and the staff managed to put out a quality paper amidst everything that was happening.

“There was so much going on, and all of it was so important,” Lutz said. “I am proud of how the student journalists handled it—even more so, in fact, as I look back at some of the work they did. It feels like forever ago, but also like it was just yesterday.”