From idle thoughts in vacant rooms to your own student-run, student-led publication, I’m proud to (finally!) present the first edition of SIMMSNews. Firstly. to introduce myself, my name is Ranako Daley and, along with Dave Whitehead, we wish all St Mary’s students and staff a happy new year and hope that this is only the start of your long and fruitful engagement with SIMMSNews.
I think it’s important to make our intentions clear and give you all an insight into why we went ahead with such a problematic yet rewarding scheme. The original idea of the paper was merely a passing thought, a casual muse of what St Mary’s could or should have and us contemplating how we’d go about it. How would we do it if we were in charge? From that, ideas flooded into our heads, we saw an opportunity to take some responsibility for our time at university and also, in a lot of ways, to test our own limits in terms of what is actually possible in the academic environment.
The next steps, from simply having an idea to forming a structured proposal, were some of the most difficult; it took hours of research and a lot of help and support from a few dedicated individuals for us to produce anything worthy of constructive scrutiny. Meetings with senior members of staff, suggestions, plans and a whole summer later and the project was beginning to bear fruit. Students and staff reacted promisingly; the majority of those aware of our initiative began to increase their involvement, communicating regularly with myself and Dave about the many facets of work necessary and, in so doing, inevitably aiding us in creating the start of a reliable infrastructure. It is individuals like this that we firstly have to thank people willing to take an extra commitment on their shoulders for an opportunity to express their opinion to their peers, not to mention the prospect of an improved CV. People aware of the bigger picture!
Deadlines followed, articles were received and multiple businesses approached all in an attempt to fill the bare bones of the basic construct; through first-hand experience we’ve applied managerial, editorial, advertising and marketing skills to bring this project to life and, by doing so, you can see the final product before you.
