By Tim Dodson, CD Managing Editor
May is a month of transition for The Cavalier Daily as we finish the last few print issues of the semester and prepare to enter summer production.
As the school year came to an end we were reporting on — and are continuing to follow — two major proposals that could impact academics at the University. One is a potential merger of the Civil and Systems Engineering departments and another is major changes under consideration for the Echols Scholars Program. As the only news organization reporting on these changes, we are providing the community with much-needed information and a variety of perspectives.
We are also continuing to follow the controversy over City Council’s decision to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from Lee Park. This past weekend, a white supremacist torchlit rally in Lee Park protesting Council’s decision made national headlines and we are continuing to report on the community’s response.
During the summer, we will have regular content and fresh stories each day. We also have a summer staff (consisting of a summer editor, two writers, and a production staffer) that is set to start in June.
May is also a month of reflection. Earlier this month we put our together our year-in-review issue and our graduation issue is coming out May 19. The end of the semester is also a time for us to consider our top stories, highlight our achievements and think about ways we can improve.
Our top five most-viewed stories from this year are as follows:
1) “Professors ask Sullivan to stop quoting Jefferson” by Kate Bellows
2) “Homophobic, sexist, anti-white language abundant in Charlottesville vice mayor’s tweets” by Tim Dodson and Anna Higgins
3) “Surgeon plans to perform first human head transplant” by Tina Chai
4) “U.Va. lecturer compares Black Lives Matter to KKK” by Dani Bernstein
5) “Humanitarian mission advocates for release of Otto Warmbier” by Tim Dodson
Moving forward, we will continue to expand our digital presence. I am especially excited to see more reporters using Twitter starting in the fall and a greater, continued use of live-streaming on our social media platforms.