Phone: (202) 687-3947 Published Semesterly Send Alumni Updates to corporate@thehoya.com.

Georgetown University • Washington, D.C.THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013thehoya.com Vol. 2, No. 1, © 2013

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1920

The site connects alums, while showcasing work of staff past and present

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

Alumni Site ReachesCompletion

BOARD OF DIRECTORSHoya Staff Writers

After several months in the works, The Hoya Alumni Network at thehoyaalumni.org, the newspaper’s alumni website, launched this week.

The project, undertaken in conjunction by the Corporate Development and Technology Divisions, serves to re-brand THE HOYA’s on-line presence for alumni and provide a space in which alumni of all generations can con-nect with one another.

The incarnation features more extensive information about THE HOYA’s history and de-velopment as well as new forum. After regis-tering with the site, alumni can discuss meet-ups outside of the ones that the Corporate Development Division organizes in George-town and bond over what ultimately unites them from their time at the newspaper. The forum currently has boards for conversation over past sports coverage and traditions at THE HOYA, but alumni are welcome to submit more topics.

“THE HOYA’s alumni relations have histori-cally varied from being run by alumni and being run by current staffers. With the fo-rum, we want to place some of the engage-ment back in the alumni’s hands. We, as students, want to better connect with THE HOYA’s alumni, but I also want the newspa-

BOARD OF DIRECTORS/THE HOYA

THE HOYA’s Board of Directors and the Corporate Development department are working to develope an interactive online database of alums’ favorite articles through the years.

See ALUMNI WEBSITE, A2

BOARD OF DIRECTORS/THE HOYA

Check out A2 for a profi le of the 138th and current Editor-in-Chief of THE HOYA, California native Danny Funt (COL ’14).

BLOG REDESIGNAs it enters its second year of existence,The Fourth Edition debuts a sleek new look.

FACES CAMPAIGN 2013The Hoya’s artistic campus cross-section is return-ing for an encore after a wildly popular � rst year.

Paper of Record Ups Online PresenceBOARD OF DIRECTORSHoya Staff Writers

THE HOYA’s staff is the organization’s lifeblood and, in addition to their regular responsibilities, staffers have been busy over the past few months introducing several new initiatives to improve the newspaper’s external presence and internal operations.

Among the most visible of the

changes has been a redesign of THE HOYA’s website, www.thehoya.com. With a rollout that began in January and has continued with small im-provements since, the goal has been to create a more appealing online front page.

Led by Contributing Editors Su-zanne Fonzi, Upasana Kaku and Steven Piccione, the redesign has included redrawn ad space, more at-

tractive and readable fonts and a less cluttered appearance for stories.

“The front page of the website is the fi rst thing people see when they search for THE HOYA on Google,” Kaku said. “Making the product look bet-ter increases readership, making us more useful to the community and hopefully boosting revenue from on-line ads.”

Kaku also worked with Board Chair

Lauren Weber and Managing Editor Victoria Edel to include staffer biog-raphies and more information about THE HOYA’s history on the website.

At the same time contributing editors were working on the website, Blog Editor Lindsay Lee completed a major redesign of The Hoya’s blog, The Fourth Edition.

FILE PHOTOS: CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

The Hoya Sports Extra (working title) is a new Facebook page in which sports photographers feature the best shots that don’t appear in the print issue.

“Winning a � nalist Pace-maker ... continues to inspire us to improve our product in the years to come.”

CONNOR GREGOIREEditor-in-Chief 2012

The Hoya Nabs Pacemaker HonorsBOARD OF DIRECTORSHoya Staff Writers

THE HOYA returned to Pacemaker great-ness this year, capturing a fi nalist spot in the competitive college newspaper contest held by the Associated Collegiate Press for its performance April 2011 to April 2012.

After a four-year absence, THE HOYA tri-umphantly grabbed a fi nalist spot, beat-ing out newspapers across the country to snag one of the coveted prizes in the non-daily, four year newspaper category. The contest, judged primarily by editors and staff of The Sacremento Bee, focuses on several elements on the paper over the span of fi ve issues from a variety of time periods.

The ACP evaluates submissions based on coverage and content, the quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth

reporting, layout and design and the use of photography, arts and graphics.

For Eamon O’Connor and Connor Gregoire, the editors-in-chief during this time period, the award symbolizes the continuous progress in excellence THE

HOYA has made in the last few years.“Winning a fi nalist Pacemaker spot

reinforces our hard work over the past few years, and continues to inspire us to improve our product in the years to come,” Gregoire said.

Following THE HOYA’s sweep of the Bunn Awards this past spring, in which the paper won 11 awards, six of which were fi rst places, this Pacemaker win continues an upswing in editorial prom-inence.

Four years ago, THE HOYA won the whole competition, and current Editor-in-Chief Danny Funt hopes to continue this tradition. Next year, he plans to en-ter THE HOYA into the online Pacemaker category, as well as Story of the Year, Photo of the Year, Reporter of the Year and Design of the Year.

“I’d like to see us improve upon this year’s accomplishment by making it into the top fi nalist winners, further showing our growth as a staff and a pa-per,” Funt said. “I believe that with the growth of our staff and institutional support over the past few years, we will continue to see a marked improvement in THE HOYA.”

Timeline Project Underway BOARD OF DIRECTORSHoya Staff Writers

Over the past semester, Board Member Mairead Reilly (COL ’13) and Corporate Development Di-rector Mariah Byrne (SFS ’14) be-gan a deep dive into our history as a paper. Sending out requests for alums’ favorite articles and photos, Reilly has begun to com-pile generations of the best of the best in Hoya history.

Over 160 alums near and far, ranging from 2012 grads to 1960 alums, sent in their favorite sto-ries and features from their time at the paper, highlighting both unique time periods and fascinat-ing reporting from Hilltop gen-erations of the past.

“Paging through our archives

and fi nding incredible features of the past has been a great expe-rience in my fi nal months at THE HOYA,” Reilly said. “I look forward to continuing to fi nd some of the more elusive stories and also be-ing able to display these submis-sions in the upcoming timeline on thehoya.com.”

Set to launch next fall, the Timeline website hopes to in-clude both articles and alumni commentary on the times in which they were at Georgetown. Video responses are also in the lineup for the launch.

“Through this outreach, we re-ally believe we can unite staffers past and present through our fa-vorite articles and photos,” Byrne said. “I’m so excited to see the de-velopment of the website in the

months to come.”Staffers will continue to work

on building out the timeline.thehoya.com website, and Chair of the Board of Directors Lauren Weber (COL ’13) believes that al-ums, whether they worked for THE HOYA or not, will enjoy the visit down memory lane.

“The great thing about the timeline project is that it can serve as an incredible chance to page through Hoya history, some-thing that unites all Hoyas in their love for the Hilltop,” Weber said.

If you missed the last submis-sion period, please contact bod@thehoya.com with your favorite articles and memories about your time on staff. We look forward to reading your submissions.

See ONLINE, A2

newsA2 THE HOYA THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

Funt Brings Old School Back To The Hoya’s Corner Office

THe HOYA’s BesT sHOTs: wInTeR 2012-13

ALUMnI weBsITe, from A1

newspaper’s past generations to have the opportunity to con-nect and network with each other,” Director of Corporate De-velopment Mariah Byrne said.

Another feature of the website is the access it provides to The hoya’s online archives. Digital, searchable copies of the newspa-pers published between 1959 and 1980 are now available through the Washington Research Library Consortium’s online records. The Corporate Development Division is currently working with the Georgetown University Library to digitize the issues published between 1920 and 1958 as well as those from 1981 to present day, although print copies can be found through the university’s

Special Collections.“The digitization project is

going to take a lot of time and money to get off the ground, but the issues already online demon-strate how important it is to have the newspaper of record easily ac-cessible,” Lauren Weber, chair of the newspapers’ Board of Direc-tors, said. “It serves not only as a means of historical preservation for the Georgetown community, but also as a reminder of our mis-sion as a paper to serve the com-munity for generations to come.”

While the website is intended for The hoya’s alumni, it also hopes to foster a stronger rela-tionship between past genera-tions and the newspaper’s cur-rent staff. It features profiles of The hoya’s current staffers and announcements of the paper’s

upcoming social events. Cur-rently in the works is The hoya’s Open House on Saturday, June 1 from 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. as part of Georgetown’s Alumni Reunion Weekend 2013.

Through The Hoya Alumni Network, past staffers can also connect with The hoya’s social media sites, access previous cop-ies of the Alumni Newsletter pub-lished every semester and learn more about ways to give to The hoya.

“The website was definitely a collaborative effort across sev-eral sections of the staff, and I am very excited for The hoya to revamp our online engagement with both recent and more vet-eran alumni. This will be a great resource for both alumni and the current staff,” Byrne said.

Website to Become Alumni Hub

BOARD OF DIReCTORs/THe HOYAServing as the 138th Editor-in-Chief of The hoya, Danny Funt has overseen the addition of polls and layout shake-ups this semester.

BOARD OF DIReCTORsHoya Staff Writer

National news media may be drifting from tradition lately, but Danny Funt (COL ’14) likes to think of himself as an old-school editor-in-chief.

“The hoya is certainly adapting to 21st century journalism, but there’s still something special about the spirit of the newsroom and the feeling of a broadsheet,” Funt said. “This newspaper has a remarkable history, and the legacy of our predecessors is what drives us to keep The hoya moving forward with every issue.”

Funt, 21, was selected editor-in-chief last November and is near-ing the midpoint of his term. He began on The hoya as a news reporter, making a memorable impression on then-campus news editor Lauren Weber (COL ’13).

“Danny was that writer that al-ways went that extra mile, check-ing on edits or our coverage from the beginning of his tenure as a staff writer,” said Weber, who now serves as chair of the board of di-rectors. “He has certainly grown since, but his potential and dedi-cation was evident from day one.”

Funt shifted to the opinion sec-tion in 2012, sitting on the editori-al board for a term then serving as opinion editor in the fall. He devel-oped an online commentary sec-tion, “Tuesdays on the Trail,” to al-low students and faculty to sound off on the presidential election.

“Spending a year with opinion was the best decision I made at The hoya,” Funt said. “My role as opin-ion editor prepped me in count-less ways to be editor-in-chief.”

As editor-in-chief, Funt brought that same political eye to the Georgetown University Student Association executive elections in February, orchestrating a door-to-door poll of nearly 800 students. The election outcome proved almost identical to the polling results.

Yet The hoya’s poll was not the most memorable moment of the GUSA elections. With two days be-fore Election Day, an online leak identified the frontrunner and his campaign manager as mem-bers of the Second Stewards So-

ciety. The hoya delivered around-the-clock coverage, attracting a record amount of website traffic and a story from the Washington Post.

“The Stewards leak was cer-tainly thrilling,” Funt recalled, “but I take as much pleasure working with the news team on a breaking story as I do debating comma rules with the copy chief or drawing dummy layouts with the layout section.”

“One of the most important things that I try to remind the staff is to never be complacent,” Funt added. “We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished this semester, but I always want us to be hungry for the opportunities that lie ahead.”

OnLIne, from A1

Designed to showcase the blog’s combination of life-style and entertainment con-tent in a more effective way, the redesign has allowed 4E to incorporate fun and infor-mative photos in a cleaner, more attractive manner. Just as important, the new format will allow The hoyato sell ads on the blog.

“We are really excited about the changes,” Lee said. “A more photo-friendly format has al-lowed us to do fun things like our ‘Georgetown Traditions’ NCAA-style bracket.”

Social media is another area where staffers have been busy. Deputy Photo Edi-tor Chris Grivas created The Hoya Sports Extra page on Facebook as a way to show off photos taken by Hoya photog-raphers at Georgetown sport-ing events.

“We can only use one or two photos in print and on-line, but our photographers often take 500 or more pho-tos at a game,” Grivas said. “Facebook exposes a broader audience to our photography and some albums have been very popular. Make sure to check it out!”

While changes to the web-site and blog and the new Facebook page have been very visible, some recent changes have been focused internally. In particular, the

Personnel Department has launched new initiatives for performance reviews and professional development workshops.

Although The hoya has used staff evaluations as part of the promotion process for several years, this spring marked the first year formal feedback was given to staffers based on peer evaluations.

Led by Director of Person-

nel Michal Grabias and Hu-man Resources Manager Addie Fleron, reviews from staffers’ coworkers were col-lated and then delivered in a facilitated session, highlight-ing areas for improvement ahead of selections for the next term’s staffers.

“While the process of put-ting together reviews for 74 staffers was time consuming, the feedback we were able to deliver was helpful and re-warding,” Fleron said. “We’re very excited about the poten-tial this review process cre-ates for staff improvement.”

Another exciting proj-

ect has been the launch of professional development workshops, spearheaded by Professional Development Manager Preston Marquis. So far, three of the planned five workshops have been offered, with attendance high, espe-cially among freshmen and sophomore staffers.

Weber offered a workshop on resumes, while Editor-in-Chief Danny Funt covered interviewing tips and Copy Chief Hunter Main gave a re-fresher on the AP style.

“It’s always useful to make sure people understand our style,” Main said. “Hopefully this workshop will cut down on mistakes, making the ini-tial copy that editors receive from writers stronger.”

Finally, Director of Corpo-rate Development Mariah Byrne and her staff launched a new jobs and internships database designed to show off the wealth of experience that Hoya staffers have in posi-tions both inside and outside the media industry.

One of the more informal, but most rewarding parts of The hoya, is the de facto men-torship that results from the close relationships staffers form by spending so much time together. This database allows the younger staffers another avenue to get to know senior staff, while also curating a database for profes-sional development.

Reviews, Workshops Kick Off

“we’re very excited about the potential this review process creates for staffer improvement.”

ADDIE FLERONHuman Resources Manager

Love is in the air.

Love for The Hoya, that is.