I have spent a semester as a Cub-Reporter, a semester as a Junior Reporter, a semester as a Reporter and a year as the Editor-in-Chief. Since my time as the Editor-in-Chief was the longest, it surely was the hardest time. Now that I can see the end of my term as the Editor-in-Chief, I am feeling sadness and relief at the same time.
When I first joined The UOS Times, I never thought that I would become the Editor-in-Chief. However, feeling the intense pressure of deadlines during my term as a Junior Reporter and a sense of accomplishment after meeting deadlines, the desire to make our magazine and The UOS Times itself better grew. This is how I went out to the Editor-in-Chief election and got elected to be the 28th Editor-in-Chief of The UOS Times.
When I became the Editor-in-Chief, I wanted to make a lot of changes to our magazine. At the start of my term, The UOS Times conducted a survey of UOS students about how much they knew about our magazine; more than 80 percent of the surveyed students said they have never read our magazine. This was a great shock for all of us. Raising the quality of The UOS Times was one thing, but we did not know where to start on making The UOS Times more well-known among UOS students. We started out by handing out our magazine at the Front Gate whenever a new edition came out and we made more kickers that UOS students could participate in, so that they could find and read the magazine themselves. We do not know yet how Korean UOS students are reacting to our efforts, but foreign exchange students are giving positive comments about The UOS Times. I think this is a good start.
A few days ago, The UOS Times had an election to choose my successor. There was a question session to evaluate the qualifications of the potential Editor-in-Chiefs. When I asked how they would make The UOS Times better, what they answered hit me hard on the back of my head. Of course I thought how I led The UOS Times was not perfect, but I had believed that I was making The UOS Times better. However, after hearing what the nominees said, I came to look back on what I did for a year and had regrets. Those regrets have given me a thought that I want to have some more time to make The UOS Times better. In spite of this thought, as I read in the book, The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom there is a sentence that says, “If there is no end in time, nothing is special.” It is time for me to let my successor do a better job. I hope that you readers give more attention to The UOS Times to see if my successor is making our magazine better. The readers’ attention is the driving force for our reporters. So keep a close watch on us!
Choi Yu-hyun Editor-in-Chief
saera92@uos.ac.kr