To Whom It May Concern (and members of The State Hornet staff):

My name is Alexandra Mayer – though at the time, it was Alexandra Poggione – and I worked on The State Hornet for more than two years. I worked as features editor under EICs Leidhra Johnson and Dustin Nosler, and then I became EIC myself for the 2012-2013 school year.

During my administration as EIC, it was imperative that our journalists were on campus as much as possible. One Tuesday morning after a long night of production, I came to work, bleary-eyed, around 6 a.m. That morning, dozens of police cars and more than a few ambulances were parked next to the river, lights on. I called my photo editor and my news editor, and together we watched and waited for what they found – a body, floating in the American River.

The paper had already been put together. All I had to do was proof it and submit the files.

Not anymore.

I had to change our entire front page layout – and you know what kind of trouble that causes for the rest of the issue. Somehow, we made it all fit, and even though we were an hour late getting it to the printer, we made it, and that BEAUTIFUL front page made it to campus the next morning.

If we hadn’t been centrally located on campus, I wouldn’t have seen the police or ambulances, and I wouldn’t have been able to travel back and forth with editors and photographers, getting the information we needed. We wouldn’t have gotten the paper to the printer in time at all, much less only an hour late.

Our location on campus – and we had it much better than you guys, up on the second floor of the Union with a huge office space – was so important to us. We were able to see into the Quad when things got out of hand. We were able to have quick and direct access to the heart of campus to cover fires, protests, police calls, and other pressing issues. Being at the center of campus enabled us to have our fingers on the pulse of the campus community; after all, we could see it all happening from our bank of windows.

The Hornet simply must stay on the main campus. To move it otherwise would stifle the keen journalistic voices all our editors worked so hard to hone.

President Nelsen, please keep the Hornet’s home where it belongs – at the heart of CSUS.

Alex E. Mayer

English Teacher