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Flipping through some of Scholastic’s very first issues this week, I was struck by just how far the magazine has progressed since the first issue was published in 1867. 

In some of our first iterations, for example, results of student exams were printed (with the comforting stipulation that “no average under 60 is published”) and readers were often addressed as “boys.” 

My staff headshot feels woefully inadequate when compared to the photos of the 1894 Scholastic staff, who sport epic mustaches, top hats and three-piece suits. 

Top hats aside, I was drawn to reminisce on some of the magazine’s history because this week marks the debut of our new, redesigned website — scholastic.nd.edu — which we hope will be another step forward in the history of the magazine.  

We began preparing for the site last June with the goal of creating an online version of Scholastic that echoes and enhances our print publication. The redesign places greater emphasis on our photography to create an aesthetic that comes closer to creating a magazine experience.

We hope our new site will make it even easier for readers to experience and interact with our stories.  Going forward, we’ll be producing online-specific content — blogs, features and event coverage — so be sure to check back for new updates. 

We are thrilled with the redesign and hope you will be too. 

Just as our own construction project is ending, however, another is beginning on campus. The Campus Crossroads Project, which has been the subject of debate from the moment it was announced, will break ground this month.

In this issue’s cover story, our associate editor, Alex Herrmann, shares his interview with Executive Vice President John Affleck-Graves. Affleck-Graves speaks to the process and decision-making behind the project, as well as how he sees the project playing into the future of the university. 

As the largest construction project in the history of the university, Crossroads will certainly be looked back upon as a seminal moment — as a crossroads, if you will — for Notre Dame. 

Whether history will view the project in a positive light is still unclear, but our cover story explains much of the rationale for the project from Affleck-Graves’s perspective, as well as some of its criticisms.  

The desire to progress and improve seems an integral part of the environment at Notre Dame, whether it’s building expansion or our own expansion online. 

It is impossible to know how our decisions now will be viewed 10, 20 or 100 years in the future. 

At Scholastic, we hope our redesigned website will be a launching pad for future online endeavors. We look forward to continuing to improve our relationship with you, and we hope you’ll join us in the journey. 

And if you have some extra time between classes or are procrastinating on that paper, give us a visit at scholastic.nd.edu. We’d love to hear from you.