“Welcome, Spectator alumni. My name is Julia Feldberg, and I am a rising senior in Columbia College as well as the current Publisher of the newspaper. It is great to see so many of you here today. I think this wonderful turnout is a testament to the extraordinary impact that The Spec has on the students who put hours of their time and energy into producing the newspaper each day. I know that when I look back at my Columbia experience in years to come, The Spectator will always remain a central part of those memories as a defining aspect of my college career.

The Spectator staff now has over three hundred writers, photographers, web designers, and business associates. In addition to the daily, we print The Eye, a weekly arts publication, and La Pagina, a weekly Spanish bulletin. In the past year, we have launched a newly redesigned website built entirely by our in-house online staffers. We instituted for the first time at the Managing Board level in the spring of 2009 The Spectator Work Study Initiative, a program that enables eligible students to receive financial aid for their work on the newspaper.

Despite these successes, The Spectator is not immune to the financial challenges facing the newspaper industry at large. Ad sales continue to drop, and our endowment has been adversely affected by the economic crisis. We have trimmed our expenses and redoubled our efforts in ad sales, but we have been unable to offset our revenue drops. In order for The Spec to remain a viable and vital part of the Columbia and Morningside Heights communities, we are commencing a $400,000 capital campaign. This campaign will enable us to expand the Work Study Initiative, purchase urgently needed new computers and software, and rebuild our endowment. I am pleased to announce that we have already raised $84,000 towards the Work Study Initiative and over $5,000 towards our technology needs. We hope that you, our Spectator alumni, will take a leadership role in helping us to reach our goals.”

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Were you at the event but did not have a chance to update your contact information? Did you not receive an invitation to the reunion? If so, please send an email to publisher@columbiaspectator.com

The 133rd Managing Board would like to thank everyone who attended the 22nd annual Blue Pencil Dinner this past Saturday, February 21st. It was a wonderful night for species both past and present as they reconnected with old friends an had the chance to celebrate accomplishments from the past year and look forward to the exciting and challenging year ahead.

With 170 guests, we were thrilled to make this is largest Blue Pencil Dinner in Spectator’s history. We had almost twice as many guests as two years ago and twenty percent more than last year. The guests included the current managing board, 20 alumni joining the 108th managing board in celebrating their 25th reunion, 40 young alumni who graduated in the past 6 years, and 7 Board of Trustees members.

Our keynote speaker, Dean Baquet, Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Times, delivered a wonderfully realistic and yet optimistic speech about both the difficulties and the joys of pursuing a career in journalism followed by an engaging question and answer session about the future of the New York Times and journalism in general.

Only through the help of generous alumni can we hope to implement our ambitious plans for further growth and development of The Spectator. We are very grateful for your continuing support and look forward to seeing everyone again soon!