New perspective

At the end of this month, the Erasmus Magazine editorial team will move to the other side of campus. Before the wrecking ball is coming for us, we’re leaving the G Building and moving into another office which, judging by the state of the ceiling, is also due for renovation: on the ground floor of the Van der Goot Building (where the University Council used to have its office).

It’s fine that it looks a bit worn out – I believe the official university term for that is ‘architecturally neutral’ – it gives us the chance to put our own stamp on it. This will be the editorial team’s fourth move in eight years, and each time we’ve managed to turn the new space into a homely place, for ourselves and for all the students and others who work for us or come to visit. Wherever we lay our hat, that’s our home.

It’s the first time EM will be based on this side of the Woudestein campus. Before G, we were in E (briefly in N, then back to E), the Erasmus Building and Tinbergen.

After the move to Van der Goot, Erasmus Magazine will once again be in a ‘visible location’. Not only will everyone on campus be able to see where EM is and easily drop by (please do!), but we’ll also have a better view of what’s happening on campus ourselves.

And this last point isn’t just a nice bonus for EM’s visibility and the pleasant view for colleagues. I also expect it to have a positive effect on EM’s journalism. As a beginning journalist, you learn that the news is out on the street – in our case, the campus – so you need to be able to see that street and be close to it, not tucked away on the sixteenth floor or at the far edge of campus.

But for me, it goes a little deeper than that. Moving to a completely different part of the world (and you can interpret that as broadly or narrowly as you like) helps you gain a new perspective on that same world. You literally see things from the other side, you meet new people and you discover new stories.

And to me, finding and describing new and different perspectives is the essence of good journalism.