Phil Tonseth ‘22
Editor-in-Chief
I’m not going to lie to y’all. When an article idea comes to mind for my intermittent ramblings, it’s a relatively easy task for me to pump out 800 plus words on jokes that I find funny, puns my editors sigh and roll their eyes at, and stories that I share that nobody reallyyyy cares to know about. However, today’s article has sat in my draft folder for a solid week, blank. I’d compare trying to find the words to describe this last year as the Law Weekly’s Editor in Chief to understanding Pennoyer or Erie on the first day of CivPro: almost impossible. There’s a deadline to meet though, so we’re going to do this live.
There was one goal on my mind when I opened the doors to the Thunderdome last February when I became Editor in Chief: use the Law Weekly to show what UVA Law is really all about, COVID or not. We, as a student body (and school, for all of the teachers, administrators, and staff reading this), were still in a weird stage of the pandemic. Some classes were back in person, there were a smattering of events held in the Law School, and the protocols to snitch on other law students for gathering in groups larger than 5 had been lifted.[1] I didn’t want the Law Weekly to just remain the same, to be a summarization of events and the news, barely attracting the attention of a small splattering of students. My goal was simply to show the UVA Law has a lot to offer, whether it be the return of all in-person classes, Dandelion, softball, cool events and guest speakers, or letters to the editor from concerned students. Anything and everything was on the table.
Was this strategy effective? Debatable. Did my strategy of showing off the social and cultural aspects of the school and community result in fewer articles on “important” topics and organization events around the school? Definitely. Was I accused of using the Law Weekly to simply share my social life to the wider UVA Law community, whether through making our front page a collage of pictures of my friends and me multiple times, or writing about how I spent more time on the golf course than in class? Seven times total, if we’re being specific. Do I regret it? Not one bit.
I came into this role with zero journalism experience. I couldn’t then nor now tell you when to use an em dash, or why it’s grammatically correct to spell out numbers below 100. All I knew was that tapping into humor, empathy, and a sense of belonging would hopefully keep the Law Weekly readership numbers afloat and bring the community together again after a rough first two years of my UVA Law experience. That’s the reason I did everything from reaching out to every class’ GroupMes multiple times asking for pictures from different events, to soliciting letters to the editor, to running contests for Halloween. An increasingly involved student body will care more, will help rebuild the culture of UVA Law, and will make it a better experience for everyone involved.
I would be remiss to not thank my amazing team for supporting me along the way. From every staff editor on the Law Weekly, to the editorial board who had to stay late and listen to my wine and Domino’s-induced ramblings, thank you. Also, thank you to all of those who were willing to be interviewed and who contributed to our paper.
In summation, my favorite part of this paper and my time at UVA Law has been the ability to make and capture memories. Although Andy Bernard may have longingly said “I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days, before you've actually left them,” I think that’s exactly the point of the Law Weekly. This paper captures what it is to be a student, from the good and the bad, to the funny and the frustrating. Take advantage of the time we have now and cherish those you’ll spend it with. These three years have gone by too quick. It’s been my pleasure to help shepherd the Class of 2022 through their 3L year doing such, and I’ll happily watch future EICs do the same.
-Mamba Out
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pjt5hm@virginia.edu
[1] Thank god. And for those people who filed a FOIA request to see who ratted you out, only to find out it was a good friend, I hope y’all have patched that up.