I’m writing to welcome you to the new home of The Faculty Herald. In mid-September, I was appointed Editor and began working on the transition to a fully online venue for the Herald. I have a background in arts journalism and have been teaching in the First-Year Writing Program since 2006.

During my time at Temple, I have served as a Representative to the Faculty Senate and as a member of TAUP’s Executive Committee. I care deeply about Temple, its role in the city, and the perspectives of its faculty and librarians. The Faculty Herald should be the voice of those who teach our students and contribute valuable research to their fields.

This is an exciting time for us. There are many stories that need to be told. In our first round of articles, we have one on the Presidential Search, an in memoriam for President JoAnne Epps, an update from the Faculty Senate, and the first in a series on faculty engaged in the Philadelphia community, to name a few.

Of course, some of our articles going forward will focus on difficult subjects like crime on campus or the ways the Temple administration handles the university’s budget, which decides the fate of so many of us. I want to work with writers interested in taking on challenges like these. 

We will now be published exclusively online after many years of publishing in print and downloadable PDFs. Ideally, this move to an online venue should make the publication more accessible to our readers. It also reflects more accurately how we read the news these days. While this first round of articles contains basic photography, I’m hoping that we can also include short videos of faculty discussing their articles on our site in the near future.

We will be able to more easily link our articles to other significant content on the web. More readers, whether it’s those with a stake in the community or colleagues at other institutions, will be more likely to engage with our work. It’s important that we get the word out about what’s happening at Temple. 

I encourage you to read through this first batch of articles written by your colleagues. They are all committed, like you, to making Temple a better place for each other and our students.

If you are interested in getting involved with the Herald, please get in touch. We are a modest operation, but you can play a significant part in a few different ways. We will need interesting photos and videos as well as new articles twice per semester. You can find our pitch guidelines on our “About” page. I can be reached via email at Stan.McDonald@temple.edu. I look forward to hearing from you.