While the top editors of The Daily Cardinal are exchanging places with last school year’s outgoing leadership team and preparing for the many changes that await a new staff, one thing hasn’t changed: dealing with COVID-19.

With the Wisconsin Legislature and University of Wisconsin System Interim President Tommy Thompson battling over who can make the rules for dealing with the virus on the state’s UW campuses, incoming Editor-in-Chief Addison Lathers and incoming Managing Editor Grace Hodgman are trying to figure out how to run a student newsroom safely in person.

Meanwhile, outgoing EIC Will Cioci and outgoing ME Kalli Anderson are refocusing their attention on an equally important subject: graduating from college.

The Daily Cardinal Alumni Association caught up with all four over the summer as they began planning for the next steps in their lives.

‘I want to continue and improve the legacy’

The Daily Cardinal’s new leadership of Lathers, 21, of Beloit, Wis., and Hodgman, 21, of Virginia, are both majoring in journalism and expect to graduate in spring 2022. Both have much experience working at The Cardinal as well as a good idea of how this school year’s newsroom will operate, including how to deal with the virus.

“We are currently planning for an open office,” Lathers said. “However, Grace and I will be requiring everyone to be vaccinated and masks to be worn when in close proximity to others.”

Hodgman added: “It's tricky because there is still a chance we will get sent home, and the office isn't very well ventilated. Basically, we’ll be following CDC and university guidelines as closely as possible. We are changing by working out new ways to have more bonding and community events while still being safe.”

The DCAA interviewed Lathers and Hodgman over the summer.

Addison Lathers

DCAA: What year do you intend on graduating if you haven't already, and what is your major, or majors?

Addison Lathers: I will be graduating in spring 2022. I am a journalism major with a certificate in digital studies.

DCAA: What were your positions at The Cardinal last school year, and how difficult was it to put out a publication in addition to attending classes?

AL: I finished my second semester as the city editor in the fall and took over as the features editor in the spring. All in all, last year was pretty smooth in comparison to my first semester in city news. It used to be a huge struggle for me to put out stories and do my homework. I never really “got it together” as an editor before the university sent us home, so I had to prepare myself to be a good editor and come up with story ideas over the summer. By the time we entered the fall, I had found my groove. I could also take print night naps at home instead of on an office couch, so that was nice.

DCAA: Did you have an internship over the summer, or were you employed over the summer, and where?

AL: I worked at The Capital Times in Madison as a reporting intern. I’ve done some local government, arts and higher education reporting, and I hope to pick up some assignments on the side this fall. 

DCAA: What did you learn about yourself in getting through the last school year?

AL: I learned that I’m incredibly resilient. Previously, I would have suggested that I’m persistent or single-minded, but my inability to give up has meant that I always got more work done this past year than I could have anticipated myself doing. I often put out two features a week.

DCAA: Why did you accept the top leadership position at The Cardinal?

AL: I thought it was about time for me to give back to the paper in exchange for everything it's done for me. I will definitely miss writing the news, but I was ready to take on more work to ensure that we return this fall with the best possible version of The Daily Cardinal.

DCAA: What are your goals and priorities for The Cardinal for the coming school year?

AL: As a two-time news editor, I’m looking forward to taking what I’ve learned and using my knowledge to rethink and reform our news coverage. We’re still figuring out exactly what our content will look like, but I think we can all look forward to a strong mix of breaking news, hyperlocal campus coverage and feature stories from every desk.

DCAA: Do you think your experience at The Cardinal will help you find employment in your field of study and why?

AL: I credit The Daily Cardinal for preparing me for my internship, and I expect The Cardinal will be key in getting me my first real job in journalism as well. We all take the same classes in the J-School; what sets us apart is how we apply the skills we’re learning. Writing for a top-tier student publication like The Daily Cardinal is the best way to get hands-on experience and new clips to show future employers.

DCAA: Anything else you'd like to add?

AL: Our new monthly mega-issues will be on stands on the last Thursday of every month! We’re going to put out a good mix of timely news and our best pieces of the month, so be sure to grab a copy to stay up to date. 

Grace Hodgman

DCAA: What year do you intend on graduating if you haven't already, and what is your major, or majors?

Grace Hodgman: I am graduating in spring 2022. My majors are journalism and linguistics.

DCAA: What were your positions at The Cardinal last school year, and how difficult was it to put out a publication in addition to attending classes?

GH: Last year I was a Copy Chief and news writer. It was difficult because my co-editor dropped out at the last minute, and training people on InDesign is hard to do over Zoom. It was tough getting them the technology and showing them tricks and shortcuts that are tricky to explain. A lot of my classes were asynchronous, which was very helpful dealing with time zones and the specific schedule I had as Copy Chief.

DCAA: Did you have an internship over the summer, or were you employed over the summer, and where?

GH: I currently have two internships, one at Ross Yoon Agency, a book publisher in Washington, D.C., and one at RSF, Reporters Without Borders, which specializes in the defense of press freedom. 

DCAA: What did you learn about yourself in getting through the last school year?

GH: I learned that, for some reason, I really enjoy working under pressure with tight deadlines. I also learned how to be more confident in standing up for myself.

DCAA: Why did you accept the managing editor position at The Cardinal?

GH: I am very passionate about the work I have done and dedicated to what we have all created as a team. I took this position because I want to continue and improve the legacy The Cardinal has built since it was established. Furthermore, I want new people to experience the levels of personal and professional growth I was able to have through The Cardinal. Through this position I think I can really help people. 

DCAA: What are your goals and priorities for The Cardinal for the coming school year?

GH: A main priority is safety and making sure everyone is healthy. I want to bring back more collaborative and community events while still following COVID guidelines. More training beyond InDesign for our editors and writers and building a strong relationship between the alumni and our staff. Another goal is to bring more evergreen content into the paper.

DCAA: Do you think your experience at The Cardinal will help you find employment in your field of study and why? 

GH: Absolutely. A main part of The Cardinal is the community and the connections you make. The experience you gain from working at the paper leads to skills for almost every career path from humanities careers with writing and reporting to STEM careers with different computer programs. For linguistics, I've gained even more skill with the different styles of writing.

DCAA: Anything else you'd like to add?

GH: I think Addison and I are a good team and balance each other out nicely. I believe this will be a good year no matter what challenges we face.

‘That community kept my head on my shoulders’

What was it like to put out a daily online publication in the midst of a pandemic?

Cioci, 22, of rural Madison, Wis., last school year’s editor-in-chief, and managing editor Anderson, 21, of Carlsbad, Calif., know first-hand. It wasn’t pretty.

“Zoom and Slack and Zoom and Slack and Zoom and Slack,” Cioci said. “I could probably count on one hand the number of in-person meetings we had with staff that wasn’t just Kalli and myself. 

“For most of the year, UW prohibited gatherings of more than 10 people indoors and required masks always, so the office was closed unless we needed something from it or the two of us really needed to be working side-by-side. Otherwise, we had daily Zoom meetings with the news editors and weekly all-staff meetings, and kept in touch on Slack constantly. 

“Stories came together in collaborative Google docs, and editors designed their own pages for the weekly paper. Everyone adapted about as seamlessly as you could expect. It’s pretty unbelievable we didn’t have more hiccups.”

Anderson said, “It was insane at first. We were put into office about three days before school started and had to pick up the pieces. Luckily, we had the both of us to tag-team everything. 

“I would check our Cardinal Slack messaging app every moment between classes, and during classes as well when they got boring. I devoted my evenings to The Cardinal, checking stories, catching up on emails and ledes, and also working on revamping our app and website. I got through by relaxing with my friends on the weekend and checking in with myself to make sure I was doing OK, but I also made sure to always check in on our editors and make sure they were doing OK as well.”

The DCAA interviewed the two outgoing editors over the summer. 

William Cioci

DCAA: What year do you intend on graduating if you haven't already, and what is your major, or majors?

William Cioci: If everything goes according to plan, this coming fall will be my last semester! I’ll graduate with degrees (BAs) in Reporting and Environmental Studies.

DCAA: It was difficult attending classes last school year, thanks to COVID-19, but how did you manage to also publish an online newspaper?

WC: It was a really hard year logistically, but probably more difficult in terms of mental health and summoning the energy to get up every day and to this thing. Really the only thing I have to point to is the incredible group of people that make The Cardinal what it is. I was more connected to the folks on our team than to anyone else last year — we were in Zoom meetings every day, if not multiple times a day; always in touch over Slack; always forwarding tips via email or Twitter or text. 

The newsroom still felt like a community, even if we barely saw each other in person, and that community kept my head on my shoulders. Reporting the news with my friends every day was so much more engaging and meaningful (and frankly, educational) than anything I got from online school last year. The paper was what got me out of bed and excited for the day. I’m forever grateful for that. It got easier over time but only so much. Kalli was as level-headed and good-humored and patient as any human could be. Couldn’t have done it without her.

DCAA: What did you learn about yourself in getting through the last school year?

WC: I learned to rely on other people a lot more, in a few different ways. There’s always so much trust involved in something as collaborative and fast-paced as a newspaper, and never being in the same room as our writers and editors made that trust all the more important. It can be stressful not to see the story or even know for sure someone’s working on it until voila! It’s in your inbox and it’s done well and you can just do your job as editor. Our staff never let us down, but it was a learning process to know and trust that the work is getting done on the other side of a screen. More important, I had to be more in touch with how I was doing. It was a rough year, and Kalli and I had a lot of responsibility. I had to rely on her to pick up my slack sometimes, and on my friends to keep me grounded. It was more out of necessity than anything at The Cardinal, but it's something that’s important to cultivate for just about every area of life.

DCAA: What type of career are you envisioning for yourself after graduation?

WC: I’d love to stay in journalism — as long as the industry still has jobs for young people. My primary medium is photography, but I also love writing and researching. Ideally, I’d like to cover environmental issues and climate change from a solutions-based perspective. It’s pretty clear to me that climate will be the front-page issue of the rest of my life, but I’d love to do work that can shed light on where hope can be found and how to get there.

DCAA: Do you think your experience at The Cardinal will help you find employment in your field of study and why?

WC: Absolutely. I love the Journalism school at the UW, but I’ve learned so much more about the practice and ethics of being a journalist at The Cardinal than I ever could in a classroom. There’s just no compensating for the experience you gain from doing the damn thing every day. I also learned a lot about leadership: mainly that the only thing to it is trusting and supporting and listening to the folks you’re working with. If nothing else, The Cardinal’s name looks great on a resume, and I could talk for hours about the fires we had to put out and the conversations we had about the paper’s future.

DCAA: Anything else you'd like to add?

WC: There’s no way I or the paper would have made it through this year without Kalli. She’s a stellar journalist, leader and friend. Also, as eager as I am to graduate, I’m super excited to just get back into The Cardinal office this semester. I don’t have a codified role at the paper anymore, but that just means I can try a bunch of different stuff and nobody really has the authority to make me shut up. That little dungeon in Vilas feels like home, and I’m excited to get back. More than anything, I’m proud of the work we did last year and I’m beyond grateful for the trust the whole DC team put in us and the organization. Can’t wait to see what The Cardinal does next.

Kalli Anderson

DCAA: What year do you intend on graduating if you haven't already, and what is your major, or majors?

Kalli Anderson: I am majoring in Journalism (B.A.) with certificates in Criminal Justice and Middle Eastern Studies. I will graduate in December 2021.

DCAA: What did you learn about yourself in getting through the last school year?

KA: I learned that I need to always be social and meeting new people. I knew that I was an extrovert, but I had no idea how much of an extrovert I was until this year when I was locked in my room from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. During the spring after I got vaccinated, I was able to function better due to the ability I had to get to know more people and reach back out to some of my friends I hadn’t seen in a while. 

DCAA: Can you explain how you managed to publish? Lots of Zoom meetings? Any in-person meetings? Was The Cardinal office closed for the entire school year? How did you make that work?

A. We managed to publish online but not on actual newspaper. We had TONS of Zoom meetings — my roommates will still complain about it and how I had too many meetings — and very few in-person meetings. We met on Zoom 5 times a week for daily publishing, once a week for print night, and whenever we needed to catch up or plan things. We met in-person a handful of times, for example for election night, but not many other times outside of that. The Cardinal wasn’t technically closed because we had keys to get in, but we didn’t have people going in. When I needed to, I would use the office as a study space. Our staff was amazing! That is how we got through it. We came, we saw, we conquered. Everybody always pumped each other up and looked out for each other and really kept me going when I thought I was going to break. 

DCAA: What type of career are you envisioning for yourself after graduation?

KA: After I graduate, I want to hike a couple of national parks in the spring semester with friends while also studying for the LSAT. I am going to take the LSAT in April and see where it takes me from there! I think I want to go to law school, but I want to explore other options with prison policy initiatives and non-profits before I commit to law school.

DCAA: Do you think your experience at The Cardinal will help you find employment in your field of study and why?

KA: YES! It already has when I interned at the State Public Defender’s Office this summer. I was able to intern there because the supervisors were amazed at my ability to manage and interact with people to get them to open up and feel comfortable. They were also impressed at how easily I went into the position and how they barely had to take any time to train me on interviewing due to my Cardinal experience. 

DCAA: Anything else you'd like to add?

KA: I am IMMENSELY grateful for the opportunity to work at The Cardinal all these years and gain all of this experience. I have been able to learn valuable leadership and organization skills, and I have been able to meet amazing people and life-long friends. I am very thankful as well for the alumni who helped me through it all, my management team — including our Business, Social Media, Advertising and Marketing Editors — and all of my editors in the newsroom. I could not have done half of anything we accomplished this year without them, and I know that Will feels the same!