I’m still teaching journalism and my usual courses, but after 21 years I’ve stepped aside as faculty adviser to the Setonian. The student voice of the hill (founded in 1919) will continue to evolve.

First published in 1919, The Setonian not only predates SHU’s journalism major, it also predates the majestic London planetrees that the Sisters of Charity planted along the driveway during the summer of 1924.

My student journalists covered the international attention that SHU received for embracing iPads in 2010 and President Barack Obama’s 2011 visit to the Flight 93 Memorial. They captured a stunning photo of the crimson-and-gold line of students linking hands as a funeral procession brought former president JoAnne Boyle up the hill for the final time, one bittersweet November day in 2013. (Boyle, who herself attended Seton Hill as an undergrad, at one point chaired the English department and even advised The Setonian.)

A few years after an editor asked to do a very successful glossy graduation magazine as an independent study, The Setonian shifted from a 12- or 16-page newsprint tabloid five times per semester, to a monthly 32-page magazine, in addition to the website.

More than one editor graduated on a Saturday and started working full-time as a journalist on the following Monday.

As I step aside, I am stunned and humbled to realize I have advised “the student voice of the hill” for about ⅕ of its history. — “Journalism in Transition: Fond Reflections on 21 Years Advising The Setonian“