We know you have not seen us for the past few months, but do not worry, we have not been hiding, we just have not been here physically.  

The Chanticleer printed our last print issue in April of 2021. As we were preparing for our May issue, we were told by the company that held our print contract, it would not be able to continue printing for us. This took us by surprise, so we had to figure out what to do next.  

Then came more changes in June when journalism Associate Professor Wendy Weinhold was named The Chanticleer’s new faculty adviser.  

Now we were in a predicament. We had a new adviser, no printing contract, and a very small returning staff for the Fall semester. As soon as August came, we put on our game faces. We reached out weekly to university administrators, newspaper publishers, and other sources to secure a new printing contract.  

The executive staff and I came up with weekly plans to build the newspaper and gain as much traction as we could to our website, but it was hard because our website, whose provider we are also in the process of changing, does not work well with smart phones, which meant a lot of people were not able to read our stories.  

Finally, six months later, we have secured a new printing contract with the Charleston Printing Authority, the printing company owned by The Post and Courier.  

So, what I am trying to say is: We apologize for not being able to be with you all physically for so long. We were asked many times, and we genuinely tried the best we could, but the important part is we are back now.  

We hope you enjoy our first, big issue of the school year. This one very near and dear to our hearts because of all our hard work reporting and redesigning, so we hope you enjoy it — we sure are proud of our new paper.  

Lastly, a huge thank you to everyone who made this issue possible. To our reporters for meeting deadlines, our photographers for their creativity, our designer and her amazing first newspaper design, and our adviser for all her dedication.  

Go Chants and stay safe everyone.