Approaching the 10th anniversary A short history of Varsity magazine

The year 2003 will be the 10th anniversary of this practicum jointly worked out by students from the English News Reporting class and English News Editing class from the School of Journalism and Communication under the guidance of Prof. Bryce McIntyre. To tell some history, Varsity was first published in March 1993. Before that, work by students from the two journalism classes had no outlet, whereas students from the Chinese News Reporting and News Editing classes had New Shatin, a monthly newspaper serving the Sha Tin District. After publication of the March 1993 model issue, Varsity became a regular monthly publication in the 1993/1994 academic year. In the first few years, nine issues were published each year, from October to June. Eventually the frequency of publication changed to lessen the workload on students. The layout and beats also were modified from time to time. At first, due to budget constraints, we could afford printing only a black-and-white magazine with a few colour pages. It was less attractive, I would say. New sections such as Channels and Science and Technology were included to enrich the content and to cover a wider scope of the Hong Kong scene. Apart from the importance of signifying the entry into our 10th year of publication, 2002 is also significant for the organization level of Varsity. If you are among our supporters and sensitive to our editorial policies, you may have already noticed the change. Due to a change in school policy, the editing class this year was spilt into two groups, each group being only half as big as the original group, with each group being responsible for the entire editing process for one semester. This resulted the drastic decreases in the number of editors this semester. Although we have less manpower, we still try our best to uphold the quality of Varsity, our treasured practicum publication. On the other hand, the smaller size of editing team has enabled us to experience a tighter form of cooperation among our teammates. Indeed, this helps generating a sense of unity and high morale, which has been an exciting and memorable experience. I believe that next year, our fellows will do an even better job to bring a brighter and ever-improving future for Varsity.

Taly Yau Managing Editor