Allie Moustakis and Skylar Soroka were elected Editors in Chief of Volume 152 of The Journal on Feb. 16.
With a 79 per cent voter turnout, 82.1 per cent voted in favour of Moustakis and Soroka’s partnership. Candidates Ali Al-Safadi and Rory Stinson received 10.3 per cent and 7.7 per cent of the vote respectively.
Soroka is the current Features Editor and was an Assistant News Editor in Volume 150. New to The Journal this year, Moustakis was promoted to Senior Lifestyle Editor halfway through fall semester from her previous position as a Copy Editor.
“I am really excited and extremely grateful that people on the masthead got to vote,” Moustakis said in an interview with The Journal. “It was sort of full circle because when Cassidy called me it reminded me back in March of last year when I got the phone call about being a Copy Editor.”
Upon hearing the election results, Moustakis said the news doesn’t feel real just yet. She’s excited to work with Soroka and build a good work environment. Moustakis and Soroka hope to keep The Journal inclusive and feeling like home for its existing reporters.
Despite meeting this year, both future Editors in Chief said “there’s no one else” whom they could work with.
The pair are prioritizing diversifying The Journal’s readership, connecting with students across cultures and faculties, particularly within the sciences and engineering.
They hope to keep operations in the Journal House at 190 University. For Soroka, The Journal has been pivotal to her university experience; beginning with contributing in her first year, she’s risen through the ranks to the top for her fourth and final year.
“I think it will be a perfect ending of my chapter at The Journal,” Soroka said.
Volume 151 Editors in Chief Asbah Ahmad and Cassidy McMackon are excited to see what the pair accomplish. They believe the incoming Editors in Chief have both the skills and vision to keep The Journal the defacto school of journalism at Queen’s.
Supervising the Features section, McMackon said Soroka always puts forward the highest quality work, pulling out the most important elements of her stories. McMackon recalled interviewing Moustakis, who used different coloured pens on her copy test. She knew then and there Moustakis was the right person for the job.
Upholding 150-years of reporting is challenging at times, but Ahmad is completely confident in the incoming Editors in Chiefs’ abilities. Hardworking and empathetic, he knows the pair will work faithfully to represent the entire Queen’s community.
“Being able to empathize, to connect with people from all walks of life, with people that have lived experience is so vastly different from you, that’s something both Skylar and Allie have,” Ahmad said.
For McMackon, a three-way contested election signifies how many students care deeply about The Journal. She praised all the candidates for running strong campaigns, hoping all of them will stay involved with the paper.
“[The Journal is] very lucky to have such an important legacy in the journalism industry overall,” McMackon said.
Soroka told The Journal her and Moustakis plan to celebrate over dinner with their predecessors. Her and Moustakis are excited to get the insider scoop and pass the torch.
Tags
Editor in Chief, editors in chief, EiC, Elections2024, Volume152
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