Board Editorial: Why the Scroll?

If you’ve ever tried to keep a journal, you would know that it isn’t the most rewarding activity at the moment. It might even feel like a chore at times, especially if you’re trying to form a habit of journaling regularly. But the reason you journal isn’t to feel satisfied immediately. You journal because when you look back months and years later, you’ll be overwhelmed with satisfaction and nostalgia that comes from reminiscing about the past. In a way, the Scroll is just like that—a chore at times, but an extremely rewarding one. Although we’re a student-run newspaper, we don’t function like a traditional newspaper that vies for readership. Instead of operating like The New York Times, whose immediate goal is to capture audience attention and bring up-to-date news, the Scroll solidifies moments that happen on campus and around the world into written history—both for ourselves, of course, but also for the generations to come. In a sense, the Scroll is a glorified version of a journaling club, detailing the events that happen to the group of people that we call our schoolmates. Even if we have a test, essay, or just a homework assignment due the next day, we find ourselves in the basement of the Kendall, writing and editing away all in service to the next edition of the Scroll. As a board, we don’t think this belittles the Scroll’s worth as a student-run newspaper. Indeed, even before the Scroll publishes an article about an event, news of it has most likely already been disseminated across the student body through announcements or school meetings. Instead, we think that our mission as a news-journaling club only bolsters our purpose on campus. Unlike the many clubs on campus that come and go—each allowing the transient passions of students to flourish—Scroll writers document student life at Deerfield onto a 12 to 16 page paper published nearly every month of the school year. Instead of striving to create the most eye-catching or dazzling issue, we pride ourselves in consistency, ensuring that all noteworthy events and achievements will not be forgotten once we graduate. Our history is a testament to that. This year marks the 100th volume of the Scroll, a century since the first issue was published in 1925. Since then, one hundred classes of writers have written for the Scroll, each writer dutifully recording their days of glory in the lines of each monthly issue. From the detailed football reports of the early days to the discussion of a return to co-education in the later years, all articles constitute a part of our heritage—the heritage we vowed to live up to when we bought into the mantra of “be worthy of your heritage.” To protect and continue this priceless legacy passed down onto our hands, the best way is to write on, recording each event in the journal of Deerfield. But the Scroll doesn’t just serve future generations of students. It also serves as a crucial block of communication between the Deerfield bubble and the external world—parents, alumni, prospective students, and many more. People who want to know Deerfield want to hear it from the voices of students. The influence of your writing in the Scroll extends well beyond campus, and each Scroll writer—or journaler—carries the responsibility of the way you want the Academy to be perceived. Each writer’s role is just as important as any other leadership position on campus as you work to complete the image of Deerfield, of the community that we take so much pride in being part of. It is a privilege to represent Deerfield. Even if the Scroll isn’t a fully fledged newspaper, there is another appeal to the Scroll: the dedication to the practice of journalism. Although we don’t produce timely news, we do still commit to publishing informative articles written and edited with high journalistic standards. This means that we seek to expose all aspects of campus life, including ones that are more serious and controversial. For example, in the November issue of 2018, ex-Editor-In-Chief Joshua Fang ’19 reported on a lawsuit by former English teacher Sonja O’Donnel, who sued the Academy of gender discrimination responding to reports of sexual harassment. Handling such a challenging and provocative topic, Fang published a highly professional news report that won him the 2019 Ancil Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism. The other recipients of the award were professional journalists from the Associated Press and ProPublica. Fang’s accomplishment shows the power of the Scroll as an outlet for campus news that accurately reflects the state of the Academy. But aside from the shiny accolades and our names on the mantelpiece of the Scoll—tiny engravings of our names on the masthead— why do we, and why should you, write for the Scroll? What justifies the time and effort that goes into publishing a 16-page issue even if we see copies of the Scroll lying in our common rooms going unread? Although the Scroll advertises itself as a “student-run newspaper,” and it indeed does provide valuable experience in writing and journalism, helping students become better newspaper writers isn’t the only function of the Scroll. Instead, we point to a hypothetical: let’s say a student thirty years later—in the class of 2066—wanted to know what student life was like three decades ago. We hope foremost, that the Scroll still exists, but also that the student would turn to our publication as a written record of days at Deerfield. If we’re fortunate enough, that student could pick up this month’s edition of the Scroll, and use it as a gateway back in time to our era. As a board and as a community, we write for the Scroll as a way to be worthy of our heritage, not for ourselves, but for the future Deerfield community to come.