Letter From the Editor: Un-Boxing the Tripod

Alex Gervais ’28

Executive Opinion & Design Editor

Happy final Tripod Tuesday of the semester! As our publishing schedule for the fall semester comes to a close, I feel it is as good a time as ever to reflect on the strides the paper has made this year. 

I have the privilege of not just opining each week in the Tripod, but also helping to design it. Being on both sides of the production process provides an interesting perspective, one where I get to see exactly how the content our hard-working staff creates every week manifests itself on the page. Each Monday afternoon, when Bella, Savannah and I sit down to actually lay out the paper in InDesign, I ask Savannah the same question: “Do we need The Box?” 

Dedicated Tripod readers may remember gaps in our paper, half-full sections with huge inserts reading, “Have a Trinity hot take? Write for Opinion!” or “Love the arts? Enjoy being entertained? Write for Arts and Entertainment!” This is what we call The Box. Over the last few years and at the beginning of this semester The Box made frequent appearances, taking up space when we simply didn’t have enough content to fill our pages. During the design process last year, former editor-in-chief Olivia Silvey ’25 and I were disappointed with The Box’s weekly appearance, struggling to link together a paper that could never seem to have enough content to get itself over the finish line each week. Yet, over our last few editions, we’ve found ourselves no longer needing The Box. Our pages have become so full that we’ve had to push select pieces to only being published on our website, a phenomena that just even two months ago anybody on the editorial staff would’ve laughed at you for suggesting. 

The lack of The Box is a credit to our renewed commitment to our mission. Under the leadership of our tireless Editor-in-Chief Savannah Brooks ’26, the Tripod is no longer treading water — it’s flourishing. This semester our masthead has ballooned, adding nine new staff writers to our team. The Tripod has brought back special editions, renewing our commitment to always representing marginalized voices in our campus community. This edition marks our tenth publish of the semester; next semester we hope to do thirteen. We’re also covering more topics and events than we ever have before — our weekly design discussion now revolves around squeezing content in, not extending it to fill space. 

Each boxless edition of the Tripod is also a reminder of our commitment to you. The paper is here to serve the student body, to act as an archive for what is happening on our campus and to encourage the free flow of ideas. At the beginning of the semester our staff brainstormed how we can truly have a finger on the pulse of our campus community, and it seems to me that we’re meeting that goal. It may just be pure luck that big stories like the hiring of Adam Kissel, the Mather workers demonstrating and President Lugo’s response to SFJP’s chalking have captured the campus’s attention; but it seems, to me at least, that the Tripod’s reporting on these monumental events is guiding the our campus conversation these days. Walk around Mather or Peter B’s at midday on a Tuesday and chances are you won’t just see students reading the Tripod, you’ll see them discussing it, debating it. For the first time in what seems like too long of a time, the Tripod is fulfilling its cultural role here at Trinity. 

So, I encourage you to be a part of this. We are still accepting submissions for our online edition during winter break; email savannah.brooks@trincoll.edu to contribute. We are building something here that’s bigger than any individual, any single story or writer. We want your perspective on campus life, on the ties that bind us together here at Trinity. Write that opinion on what you think the school can do better. Report on the events you feel are not being covered right now. Create the content you want to see on our pages. Our paper is only great because of the students who choose to make it great. Be one of those students. Email tripod@trincoll.edu to contribute.

– ABG