85,150. 

That’s my estimate for how many words The Hullabaloo has published in print just this year. Whatever the number really is, it is quite a lot, and it doesn’t even factor in the words that were written online or the thousand words that were contained in every picture, if you take the old saying to be true. 

What happened, in all those words? I’m thinking now about the hundreds of nights the other editors and I have spent in the office, laboring over spellings and sentences and style, about how the papers we made — nine of them this year — will be placed in just the next open file in a big drawer, in an even bigger cabinet that contains 120 years more of them. 

It can all feel like a great smudge of ink, one long, messy draft instead of neat paragraphs. So, before this one gets filed away, I want to reread the moments that gave it shape. 

This year, the campus changed in visible ways. Two new residence halls opened, along with policies that reshaped student life — three years required living on campus and an unlimited meal plan to start, which were not without controversy. Across S. Claiborne Avenue the proposed demolition of the neighborhood diner Ted’s Frostop for another student housing complex sparked enough community backlash to halt the project, at least for now. 

Also Uptown, new tennis courts were laid down, and the so-called “bubble” practice facility was blown up for the football team, who went strong until the fateful final game against Ole Miss and the departure of head coach Jon Sumrall. Construction on the streets surrounding campus never seemed to cease. Downtown, the university renovated lab spaces and reaffirmed its intention to expand even further.  

But there was also destruction. Memories of Hurricane Katrina — twenty years ago this past August — resurfaced, reminding us of how much was lost in the storm. A large fire broke Diboll garage, burning up a row of cars and causing the building to shut down. Cracks appeared in institutions, too: Phi Kappa Sigma was sued for hazing, and Kappa Sigma was listed as dormant following another hazing investigation. Among faculty, Tulane Workers United grew in prominence, joined by a new librarian’s union. One faculty member at the Environmental Law Clinic left due to claims of academic censorship, and another made waves by leaving for a job at a prestigious Chinese institution.  

From beyond campus, the wider world pressed in. National politics showed in events like Tulane’s chapter of Turning Point USA being reestablished, which provoked debates about the nature of free speech on college campuses. Border Patrol agents, sent to New Orleans by President Trump, inspired some of the largest protests in the city’s history.  

Still, students studied through midterms, danced at Greek Groove, soaked in the sun at Crawfest, broadened their minds at Bookfest — or their grandparents did —  and enjoyed sitting at Bappy, while the tables lasted.  

For all of these events and more, The Hullabaloo has been there. We wrote it down. We tried, at least, to notice what was happening and give it a shape, with integrity, honesty and care.  

These values are embodied by our staff, who are among the most impressive people I have had the pleasure of knowing at Tulane. Thank you to Lindsay Ruhl, Cameron Young, Cassidy Meehan, Lia Prados, Sophia Finkbeiner, Rosemary Mulvey, Rebecca Quist Larsen, Sophia Duhon, Jason Bernstein, Henry Diamond, Marcela Batlle Cestero, Mohini Yadav, Alya Satchu, Anna Skerrett and all our staff writers and copy team members, who have become too numerous to list here. You are the backbone of this paper. 

I would not rather be in such constant communication with any other group as this year’s Managing Board. Thank you to Personnel Director Arushi Kher for helping turn The Hullabaloo’s basement office into a sort of home. Thank you to Business Manager Hayley O’Connor for bringing in more money to the paper than it has seen in years. Thank you to Nathan Rich for keeping our 120-year tradition of printing alive and doing so with virtuosity. Thank you to Chief Copy Editor Riley Hearon for your unflagging commitment to clarity in content and form. Thank you to Digital Director Lila Mago for allowing more people to read The Hullabaloo than ever before. And lastly, thank you to Managing Editor Ellie Cowen, for always being there for me — for the tough editorial calls, the late nights, all of it.  

With the incoming Managing Board — Editor-in-Chief Lillian Foster, Managing Editor Ryann Goldberg, Digital Directors Olivia Morgan and Jonathan Emery, Chief Copy Editor Marion Candler, Business Manager Varun Adelli and Personnel Director Nathan Jones — know that this paper is being left in good hands.  

And with that — 85,150 words or so later — another year passes. I’ll add a few more before signing off.  

My grandmother grew up speaking Cajun French, and although, like many of her generation, she lost much of the language in her later years, there were some expressions that stayed. One was “Lâche pas la patate” or simply “Lâche pas,” meaning literally “don’t drop the potato.” Figuratively, it is an expression of perseverance. This phrase has been passed, hot potato-like, through generations: from my grandmother’s mouth to my mother’s leg, where she wrote it down before difficult exams to remind herself of its lesson, and here I pass it along again.  

Words are passing through us, so many of them all the time, tens of thousands in just this publication this year. The task of writing them down, of holding onto them is not easy — but it is an important job, especially these days, and it is the job of a newspaper and its readers.  

So, to all The Hullabaloo members, to come and to you, I say: Lâche pas.