You’ve probably noticed this cover isn’t like the other two you’ve seen on the stands this year. That wasn’t by accident.
For this issue, we decided it was time to dig deeper into real issues. It’s easy to play it safe, but the journalist in me was itching to do something more hard-hitting. Even if we’re discussing the dealers behind study drugs, the fight behind social change or awkward experiences with bad dates, these are relevant to the lives and experiences of college students today. It’s naive to think we should only talk about the achievements — we’re only telling half of the story if we don’t touch on vices as well.
When our staff writer, Hannah Jeffrey, came to me with the idea to write about study drugs at USC, we were searching for some way to make it different. Every publication has reported that college students take Adderall, and a lot of it. In fact, Garnet & Black actually wrote a story in Summer 2011 called “Overachiever’s Drug Culture.” In a moment of brain-storming, Hannah looked at me and asked, “How do I make this different? What — do I write it from the dealer perspective?”
So that’s what we did.
As USC’s magazine, it’s important to include a wide range of stories to represent students across a variety of backgrounds. Diversity is something not only worth representing, but also celebrating. Our feature “Relative Perspective” reflects on parallel experiences from USC students studying abroad and international students studying here. We wanted to see how USC looks through a foreign lens.
As a 20-something, I spend a lot of time reading pieces condemning millennials. In our feature "Constant Conversation," we make the case that social media isn't always bad; it can actually be a vehicle for social change. I'm not saying we're perfect, but as the generation raised on the Internet, we're socially engaged and willing to see the world from different perspectives.
