The Daily Free Press Board of Directors held its last Spring 2022 meeting on the COM lawn to enjoy one of the first warm days of the year. There, seven board members — Ananya Panchal, Alex LaSalvia, Victoria Bond, Nick Telesmanic, Sarah Readdean, Alexia Nizhny and Allison Pirog — officially retired their positions to pursue life post-graduation. We congratulate and thank them for their work at the Daily Free Press.
Throughout the semester, the Board made great progress in some ongoing projects.
- Nick Kolev, Standards Chair, finished curating internal transition documents in order to streamline the onboarding process for future section editors.
- Sarah Readdean, Alumni and Archival Chair, launched @dfparchives on Twitter as part of a continued campaign to document Daily Free Press history since 1970.
- Yvonne Tang, Public Relations Chair, restarted the @dailyfreepress TikTok after a brief hiatus, increasing the follower count by 33%.
- Madhri Yehiya, Staff Recruitment and Training Chair, changed the writer application process from a rolling basis to a deadline basis, processing approximately 70 applicants. Yehiya further initiated structural improvements by building a “Top 2 Feedback Form” to be filled out at the end of each semester.
- Yvonne Tang, Public Relations Chair, alongside the input of the Board, opened a merch store to supplement profits and promote engagement.
For the first time, Daily Free Press articles were translated into simplified Chinese in collaboration with the BU student-run After School Club. Cici Yu, City News Editor, volunteered her services once a week to read over the translations for ESL students. We have plans to continue this partnership into the next academic year in the hopes that it will ensure an inclusive readership background.
As a whole, the Board of Directors will continue to prioritize Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, editor wellbeing and quality journalism. With this in mind, we ended the semester with adding several new positions: Co-Campus News Editor, Co-City News Editor, Co-Features Editor, Co-Photo Editor and Co-Sports Editor. The new editorial board will consist of 18 members. We welcome Fall 2021 Features Editor Molly Farrar as the next Editor-in-Chief and Spring 2022 Campus News Associate Editor Tanisha Bhat as Managing Editor, in whom we have full confidence in taking over the newsroom.
Finally, we welcome seven new members to the Board of Directors: Mitch Fink as Grants & Awards Chair, Sujena Soumyanath as Fundraising Chair, Katrina Liu as Staff Recruitment Chair, Brian Foisy as Audience and Engagement Chair, Emily Stevenson as Alumni Chair, Cici Yu as Archival Chair, Sabine Ollivier-Yamin as Standards Chair, and Smaran Ramidi as Web Chair. This upcoming semester will have an unprecedented team size, to which we say: the more the merrier!
Spring 2022 Executive Board
Ananya Panchal — Board Chairwoman (Multimedia Editor, Spring 2019)
Alex LaSalvia — Vice Chair (Campus Editor, Fall 2019)
Jean Paul Azzopardi — President (Editor-in-Chief, Spring 2022)
Victoria Bond — Secretary and Legal Chair (Editor-in-Chief, Spring 2020)
Nick Telesmanic — Treasurer (Sports Editor, Spring 2019)
Board Members
Justin Tang — Advertising & Fundraising Chair (Podcast Editor, Spring 2020 and Fall 2020)
Sarah Readdean — Alumni & Archival Chair (Managing Editor, Fall 2020)
Melissa Ellin — Audience and Engagement Chair (Campus Editor, Fall 2020)
Abbigale Shi — Career Development Chair (Opinion Editor, Spring 2021)
Isabella Abraham — Diversity & Inclusion Chair (City Editor, Fall 2021)
Alexia Nizhny — Grants & Awards Chair (Layout & Graphics Editor, Spring 2021)
Yvonne Tang — Public Relations Chair (Layout & Graphics Editor, Fall 2021)
Madhri Yehiya — Recruitment & Training Chair (Campus Editor, Fall 2021)
Allison Pirog — Staff Development Chair (City Editor, Fall 2020)
Nick Kolev — Standards Chair (Campus Editor, Spring 2021)
Molly Farrar — Web Chair (Features Editor, Fall 2021)
