It’s been 262 days since the Ring-tum Phi incorporated as a nonprofit newsroom independent of Washington and Lee University.

In that time, I’ve gotten countless “if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it” questions that revolve around: “Why?” Why did the Phi relinquish university support that has historically been helpful? Why did we create more work for editors who are already overwhelmed with responsibilities? Why did we undertake the risks of being an independent business entity when dependence on Washington and Lee — and its office space, computers and other resources — is so much easier?

After leading the Phi through a school year of successes and challenges, I could give you 262 reasons why independence is the best, and only, solution that can guarantee a stable future for the Phi in today’s unpredictable political and economic conditions.

But in the spirit of journalistic efficiency, I’ll stick with my top three.

Aligning the Phi with the best of the best
First, independence is the industry standard of the journalism world. Check any mission statement of any respectable news organization in the country, and you’ll find independence as a key tenet. Independence is also  one of the Society of Professional Journalists’ leading ethical principles and one of 10 essential elements of journalism identified by industry experts Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel.

In short, independence for journalists is like bar certifications for lawyers or Food and Drug Administration approvals for pharmaceutical companies: a signal that consumers can use to determine who to trust and what to take seriously.

Independence is the industry standard because it gives journalists the freedom they need to not be “seduced by sources, intimidated by power, or compromised by self-interest,” as Rosenstiel writes.

At the Phi, independence means that our reporters can cover university news without feeling like they owe any favors. As our own corporation, our only commitment is to the truth, not to any group of administrators, professors, students, alumni or others who hold power at our university. Such independence allows the Phi to be a reliable source of news that creates accountability and covers the topics that affect our community the most, from campus safety emergencies to administrative upheavals. 

But independence is about more than being an unbiased monitor of power, Rosenstiel writes.

“On a deeper level it speaks to an independence of spirit and an open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity that helps the journalist see beyond his or her own class or economic status, race, ethnicity, religion, gender or ego,” according to Rosenstiel’s guide to the journalism industry.

That wording should feel familiar to the Washington and Lee University community, as our school’s mission statement calls for “a liberal arts education that develops students’ capacity to think freely, critically, and humanely.” That leads me to my second defense of the Phi’s independence: It’s a continuation of university tradition, not a break from it.

Maintaining university tradition
Journalism education has been a priority at our university since Robert E. Lee’s tenure as president, when the college developed several new programs to give students practical skills to help rebuild the post-Civil War South, according to the journalism department’s webpage. The W&L journalism department went on to become one of the founders of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and continues to be the only accredited journalism program at a nationally ranked liberal arts college.

It makes sense that a school with such a commitment to journalism education has an impressive record of student-led publications, including the Phi, which has reported news “by the students and for the students since 1897,” as our motto states. The Phi has a crucial responsibility to preserve and strengthen that tradition of student press.

The sad truth is that we couldn’t see a future in the model that supported us for decades. As news content has shifted into digital mediums in recent years, the Phi witnessed the collapse of our revenue model as demand for print papers decreased and advertising money disappeared with it.

Our incorporation as a nonprofit allows us to innovate our business model, operating on a budget accrued through subscription payments, advertisements and donations.

In other words, Phi student leaders saw a problem, crafted a solution, and remained determined to preserve W&L’s legacy of intellectual curiosity and journalistic excellence — sounds like the same tradition of student leadership that’s applauded throughout our campus and its history, to me.

Proactively preserving free press rights
The third and final reason the Phi’s independence is so necessary is that student journalism is under threat across the country. In Vermont, Norwich University’s student newspaper was suspended and then reinstated with significant administrative oversight after students covered sexual assault on campus, according to VTDigger. Indiana University administrators cut The Indiana Daily Student’s funding for print newspapers when the school faced a budget deficit, leaving students scrambling to change the way they distribute their news, according to The Herald-Times. At the University of Texas at Dallas, administrators took action against the student newspaper after it covered pro-Palestine protests by appointing an adviser to read stories before publication — that adviser then fired the paper’s editor-in-chief, according to the Texas Tribune. The list goes on.

It would be, frankly, dangerous to ignore these patterns and assume we are safe from them in Lexington. By declaring our independence, the Phi protects itself from any outside interference, no matter how unlikely such interference may seem on a campus with a strong reputation for student journalism.

The Phi now has its own address, its own bank account and its own paper clips, for crying out loud. No one outside our newsroom can stop us. That’s how it should be.

That is not to say that the past year has been easy. Far from it. In September, following the Phi’s incorporation as a nonprofit, administrators cut the Phi off from all university resources, ranging from our office space in Commons to our Box cloud storage folder that housed all of our layout templates and archives. We had to completely reimagine the way we run our newsroom.

As I write my final words for the Phi, I want to leave my team with the message that I could not be prouder of the work we have done this year. We started with nothing — literally, not even an address — but we didn’t miss a beat, constantly adapting to deliver the news that our community deserves. The year 2025 will be remembered as arguably the most important year for the Phi, and I am honored that I got to make history with y’all. Yes, I know that’s a big statement to make, considering the fact that the Ring-tum Phi has been around for nearly 130 years.

But we ensured that it will be around for 130 more.

I can’t leave without saying thank you, which is truly an understatement when it comes to the gratitude I have for this group of stellar young journalists. Over the course of writing 59 stories, designing 40 print layouts, and planning hundreds of hours of meetings, training workshops and recruitment sessions, I have learned from the Phi and its people what it means to be a driven, professional, ethical journalist. The Phi has single-handedly built up my confidence in my writing and reporting skills. The Phi has given me the armor of thick skin that I need to survive in a world that often isn’t kind to journalists. The Phi has introduced me to the most supportive network of friends and mentors. The Phi has confirmed that journalism is my calling.

All I can hope is that I’ve given back to the Phi just a fraction of everything it’s given me.