by Jeffrey Mu ’24
Dear reader,
If you’ve ever sought solace from the stressors of your day-to-day life, you’ll know what the comfort of your own home feels like. The burdens of work may tinge at you for a while, but when you are distanced from the bad test score, above the tournament loss, you float away, little by little, from your harsh realities. Separated from the ominous rain and holding onto dry, there can never be a place to resemble the comforts of a simple roof over your head.
At its best, the Bell Online is a second home on a crisp Thursday morning. Though you may carry with you the burdens of your first-period class, you’ll quickly forget them amongst the lively chatter and familiar tinking of keys. You may find snacks on the table, and your liaison pitching new ideas – listen in, and you may tune out the noise of your week. And just within an hour or so, you may tackle your new article with fresh ideas, and find that solution to the problem you’ve always wanted to solve. Of course, no one club room is a panacea of peace, a holy bundle of bliss, but here at the Bell Online, whether through our meetings or our weekly articles, we know that you will find something here for you.
In order to better make that leap for our readers’ satisfaction, we made some important changes last quarter. Our readers would be able to relish at the look of:
1. A first collaboration with the Bell Writing collective, and their first short story publications online.
2. A brand-new humor/satire column.
3. A continuation of casual articles like How well do you know Bellarmine’s campus? and some more satirical articles like the difficulty rankings of different classes.
4. Consistent article publishing, with a feature to notify you when articles are published.
5. New functionalities of the sidebars and improved menu items, as well as links to Bellarmine’s own social media.
Though the difficulty rankings of classes proved too controversial to post, we sincerely believe we have committed to fulfilling your expectations this last quarter. With the addition of the Bell Writing Collective’s pieces and the integration of the Maker Lab’s and Bell Political Review’s various articles, we hope that we will continue to bring you a variety of on-campus coverage. On the other hand, casual series like How well do you know Bellarmine’s campus? have intrigued our readers, and we hope to have brought a fresh look at our campus We hope to bring you more of those, and a possible extension of the series. Whether it’s through the integration of Bellarmine’s official Instagram into our website or streaming YouTube videos right from the home page, we hope to make it as streamlined as possible to access all aspects of your favorite school right here on our website. So, in the spirit of the brand-new year, here are our resolutions to you, our dear readers, over this third quarter:
1. Expansion of our platform beyond the realm of articles and videos, featuring new media widgets.
2. A brand new Bell Online Podcast.
3. A way to comment on your favorite article, and to interact with polls.
4. Consistent coverage of spring sports, and published articles every Thursday.
5. Testimonials on events happening at Bell.
The Bell Online will always be a place of comfort to you, no matter which classes you take or what activities you are a part of. From an editor here Online, I strive to make our website the website you want to see, bring you the articles you want to read, and the place you’ve always wanted to be in: your second home. And that’s an Online promise!
Jeffrey Mu ’24