Letter from the editor

Dear Chemeketa,

I imagine that many people reading this will see the launch of Tempest as a beginning, but, for me, this marks the end. The end of a journey that began over a year ago when I started looking for a student newspaper at Chemeketa. 

We’ll need to back up a bit farther than a year ago. Back over a decade to 2012, when I first started at Chemeketa in the Fall term. In those days, the old student newspaper, The Courier, could still be found around campus. I returned to Chemeketa for the Fall Term of 2022, but it wasn’t until the Winter Term of 2023 that I found my way back onto the Salem campus. One of the first things I noticed was that The Courier was no longer around. So for the last year I have been slowly but steadily working towards and establishing a student newspaper at Chemeketa once again. Since you are reading this, you will know that my efforts proved successful. But I did not, nor could I, have done this alone. The launch of Tempest was a monumental task that required the tireless work of many people here at Chemeketa, including both current and former students. 

There are many people who I need to thank for being a part of their part in helping me and Tempest get to this point. First of all, an enormous thank you to the rest of the Tempest team: Grace Cooper, Samantha Schmidt, Isabella Clark, and Emily Mackley. This would not have been possible without them, and they have been incredibly patient with me as I have learned, and still learn, what it takes to be an editor-in-chief. Another enormous thank you to Kaitlyn Wimmer for joining the team and teaching me how to be an EIC. Her eleventh hour return to Chemeketa is something I consider nothing short of a miracle. A special thank you to Mary Ellen Scofield for agreeing to be the Journalism Club advisor even though I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I still remember our first meeting in the cafeteria to discuss my vision(s) — look how far we’ve come! Yet another enormous thank you to Ryan Janowitz, the EIC for the Commuter at Linn-Benton Community College, for meeting with me and Grace so we could learn about other community college newspapers. A final enormous thank you to Gretchen Sims, the EIC for the Western Howl at Western Oregon College, for being the first person to talk with me when I was trying to figure out how to run a student newspaper. Throughout this whole journey, she has constantly gone out of her way to help not only myself but the rest of the Tempest team. She even went so far as to take a day out of her busy schedule to provide the team with training when we were starting out. Thank you to Sydney Darby, Tammy Jabin, and Alexis Butzner for the constant advice, encouragement, and support. Thank you to Keith Russell, Joel Gisbert, Mike Evans, David Hallett, and Jessica Howard for sitting through a meeting, or several meetings for some folks, to figure out this whole thing. And a final thank you to all of the former Courier staff whose work serves as the foundation for Tempest, especially Matt Skog and Dylan Umsted. We would not have been able to get the website up and running as quickly as we did with Dylan’s help. Matt put a herculean amount of work into The Courier, and I am beyond grateful that he has always been willing to meet with me to provide some of his immense insight.

Anyway, that’s enough about the past. Let me be the first to introduce you to the new student newspaper, Tempest. There are so many things that compete for our attention these days that it means a tremendous amount to myself and the rest of the Tempest team that you would take the time to check out everything we have poured an incredible amount of time and energy into. This is a publication produced by Chemeketa students for Chemeketa students, born out of the newly formed journalism club. Keep an eye out over the next few days! And, expect regular publishing for the remainder of Spring term!

Oh, there is one final person I forgot to thank. 

Thank you dear reader for taking the time to read this. I hope you stick around, there’s some really great articles to come, I promise.

Esteban A. Salgado

Editor-in-Chief, Tempest