Hello, Archer community!
We hope you had a wonderful year filled with community, joy and — honoring Archer’s theme for this school year — purpose. As the two of us reflect on collaborating to lead The Oracle this year, purpose has continuously come to the forefront of our minds.
Our purpose as editors-in-chief this year was to thoughtfully lead our staff of 39 in producing relevant, empowering journalism grounded in innovation, collaboration, individuality and empathy. We wanted every story, whether it covered on-campus events, local natural disasters or politics and protests, to be handled with integrity, curiosity and care.
When community members approached us with concerns about pieces we’ve published, we did our best to lead with our four ethical pillars: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable and transparent.
Through all of this, we’ve realized our mission as editors-in-chief gave us both a deeper sense of purpose as individuals in our community — to utilize our platform as a vehicle for meaningful change. Our work documents the history of Archer and Los Angeles, spotlighting the pressing issues in our diverse community at this unique time. As editors, we are leaders for younger students and share the purpose of helping them find their unique voices as they grow. We value both moments of collaboration and disagreement, reminding us why student-led journalism is important.
We also learned that purpose is not the same as perfection. We worked diligently to strengthen our fact-checking, address mistakes and continue to build upon the foundation that past editors-in-chief crafted. More than anything, this experience taught us the value of accountability and openness.
Because The Oracle holds the ability to shape conversations and narratives on campus, we felt a responsibility and sense of purpose to closely examine the stories we told and the range of perspectives they reflected. We wanted to leave behind something reflective that would help future staff think critically about equity and whose stories we tell. Conducting a diversity audit of our entire 2025-26 staff is one way we hope to leave The Oracle stronger than we found it.
Next year’s editorial board will be responsible for reviewing this data and determining The Oracle’s next steps to ensure diverse, equitable coverage of the entire Archer community.
