Graduating members of The Ticker‘s executive board impart their thoughts to the student population and what they learned working four years at a newspaper. 

It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: Saying goodbye is the most difficult thing you can do. 

As the semester comes to a close, I’m hit with feelings of gratitude, bewilderment, fear, courage, pride and everything in between.

I spent two years as editor-in-chief of this paper. 

I always say that among everything I’ve ever done, the work my colleagues and I have put into this paper is what I’m most proud of. 

People are going to look back at The Ticker and call it a college newspaper or a club that some students were involved in, but it’s so much more. 

Of course, everyone says that about their organization. 

But The Ticker is truly special. It’s a place of curiosity, where students constantly question policies or behaviors. 

It’s a place of wisdom, where students ask for feedback from one another and make mistakes and learn from them. 

It’s a place of growth, where students can come in having no skills and learn how to ask pressing questions and face off with administration over issues. 

For me and for a lot of my colleagues, that was what it was for us: a place where you learned new things about the college and people came to you with serious issues or some of their deepest fears or vulnerabilities, a place that gave you a platform to raise these issues and tell the masses with an aspiration that what you’re presenting out there will bring some kind of positive change.

My colleagues and I have faced off with Student Life representatives, school administrators, bullies, people accused of sexual harassment, student leaders accused of hazing, and more. 

And now we’re facing off with a ticking time bomb, waiting for our days at Baruch College to end and trying to do as much as possible in the limited days we have left. 

We have so many goodbyes to say, but the biggest goodbye is to the students we’ve served faithfully since we’ve been here. 

Every year of Ticker staff is different; people have different leadership styles and visions, and The Ticker fluctuates in focus, quality and visibility. 

The past few years brought telling journalism that affected school events, policies and attitudes. 

We broke news about an Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidate engaging in plagiarism, a professor who kissed his students in and out of class,  as well as dozens of USG senate resignations, President Mitchel B. Wallerstein announcing his resignation from the college and then walking back on it and more. 

We documented some of the school’s most memorable events like the launch of Black History Month, Women in Business’ annual “Style Your Success” event and UCLA’s Lunar New Year Festival. 

We’ve stood up for the voiceless, mistreated and slighted, and we amplified their concerns, just as an independent newspaper is supposed to do. 

We asked difficult questions and made enemies with what we put out there. 

We asked difficult questions and were often met with vague or curt responses. 

But no matter what, we kept going.

We made mistakes both in assumption and in print, and we corrected them as soon as we learned the truth. 

We strived to be fair, sensitive, honest and critical. 

We endured mobs in our own office, nasty glares in the hallways, rude rumors and unfair judgment passed between faculty members. 

We engaged with the Baruch community, speaking to club members, commuters, student leaders, pissed off faculty members and so many more.

It is my belief that The Ticker will continue to do all this and more. 

The Ticker will remain a strong and relevant force within the school, influencing what happens and when, and stirring attention and positive change in this environment. 

To the new staff of The Ticker: You are going to face intense opposition and overwhelming situations.

However, you are going to prevail because you are fiercely passionate about Baruch, and care about what happens to and within it. 

I am humbled by the passion you’ve shown over the years that I’ve been here. 

Without you, this paper simply would not be.

With this, I say goodbye and thank you for your attention to and passion for this school many of us know as home.

Yelena Dzhanova is The Ticker’s Editor-in-Chief.