The Summer Evergreen has a lot to offer readers this week. Our themed news content provides an update on community-wide changes and transformations. Our regular news content features an update on President Elson S. Floyd with reference to his recent announcement of taking a leave of absence.

It is my goal to make clear how this content was decided and what purpose it serves.

The Washington State University Board of Regents announced their approval of Floyd’s requested family medical leave on Friday, June 5. Our themed content had already been decided independently and assigned three days prior.

While it may seem that a theme of change and transformation being placed alongside Floyd’s news is intentional, it is completely coincidental. We realized it was important that we don’t let either the theme or Floyd’s announcement hinder or detract from each other.

Usually, we place themed content closer to the front half of the newspaper. Unless regular news content is breaking or has an immediate impact on the community, we give ourselves more flexibility in regards to where it will be placed.

Floyd’s leave was both breaking and had immediate impact on the community.

So, we had two options. We either make the theme focus on President Floyd and make the other themed content be secondary. Or we give both prominent space and structure the layout accordingly.

We chose the latter.

Staying consistent with our past issues, we teased a themed article on our cover. The theme focuses on seasonal transformations. It utilizes updates on construction, an update on a local business, and an update on the future of the New/Old Bookie to get the message across.

The stamp with the clock and arrow provided in this letter will assist in connecting each themed article. The “I heart EFlo” social media icon provided in this letter will assist in connecting content related to Floyd.

Themed articles do not start until page eight, however. Pages three and four, our first two pages with news content, have been utilized to develop a package about President Elson Floyd.

I wrote an article that compiled all of the relevant information released over the weekend about Floyd’s leave, including who is taking on his responsibilities and how community members can share their support, with new clarifying information.

Paired with it is a profile on Floyd written by Christine Rushton, a former editor-in-chief of The Daily Evergreen that originally published in August of 2013.

The profile was chosen because of its personal presentation of Floyd. It is a timeless feature that dives into his character and shares a behind the scenes interaction many students have experienced at one time or another.

A year-by-year timeline of Floyd’s achievements was developed to share what his service has accomplished and provide insight into his trajectory.

Throughout the newspaper there are various other articles, with and without a theme, but Floyd’s announcement clearly takes precedence.

Floyd is a man incredibly engaged with campus. He has been a strong supporter of us here at The Evergreen as Cougs, as students, and as another part of his family.