Academics

Eukaryon is published by students at Lake Forest College, who are solely responsible for its content. The views expressed in Eukaryon do not necessarily reflect those of the College. Articles published within Eukaryon should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.

Dear Readers,

The goal of any journal is to put out a product better than the last, making each issue a more difficult job than the one before. When you can actually step back and quantify that by just looking at the amount of interest there has been in the work of your peers, there’s this great feeling like you’ve done something important and worthwhile. And everyone wants to feel like their time is worth something to someone somewhere.

The authors in this year’s issue of Eukaryon are very excited to have their work showcased in an asset so valuable to any college. But getting to the publication point is never easy. The volume and quality of submissions this year was higher than previous years and the review board, working with new guidelines and greater scrutiny, did their best to choose what will, hopefully, be viewed as the finest work. Sadly, you can never accept every submission and the hardest part of any reviewer’s job is always rejecting papers. This year, we have gotten better about notifying authors of reception and rejection but we are still not perfect. I hate rejection letters because I feel like the person who has to tell someone their family pet just got run over by a car. It’s just important to remember that the article does have merit or no one would have recommended it for submission in the first place.

With around fifty article submissions representing at least six professors and about 55 students, Eukaryon is experiencing exponential growth. Our editorial board has dealt with this beautifully. Thanks to Michael Zorniak., the copy editing board ran smoothly in spite of being a person short. Furthermore, while we were scrambling to make the publication deadline last year, almost all of the formatting was finished in the beginning of January. More than a month before our deadline giving us more time to plan for a bigger and better 2007 inaugural ceremony. Big thanks to Lokesh for that - and to Chelsea for managing it so well.

Speaking of the 2007 Ceremony, this year we are so pleased the Professor Anne Houde agreed to be our seminar speaker. Last year, we did not give a seminar before the ceremony and we are expecting a great crowd. So rarely do our mentors share their own work within our academic community and they do such wonderful work. If it weren’t for them and their support we would neither be the students nor the magazine we are today. Professor Houde has always supported Eukaryon in spite of our discrepancies (which we are in the process of fixing) and we are grateful for her patience and guidance.

Our publication, though growing quickly, has still only gone from infant to toddler. This year, in addition to new review guidelines and restructuring the ceremony, we announced the creation of three new positions, amendments to the constitution, and print issues. The new positions encompass Business Manager, Records Keeper, and Rolling Editor-in-Chief. Though all of these positions are important to us, the Rolling Editor is especially important. He/she will serve as the understudy to the Editor-in-Chief and take over when the Editor steps down or is unable to serve.

The print issues mark the transformation of Eukaryon from a caterpillar to a butterfly. We are not only a web magazine but we are a real journal that you can find various places throughout the campus. We hope you enjoy!

The board will lose half of its members to graduation come May and faces a great challenge next year. Many of those who will be lost are founding members and we are sad to go. While there are some wonderful underclassmen who show immense potential, they are going to have to step up and take control - training new members and keeping everything organized. I have no doubt, however, that they will do a magnificent job with most likely more and better submissions. They are not afraid of hard work and consumptive hours. With them, Eukaryon will continue to grow and be a success. We know that we will never be Science or Nature, but maybe we can be teenagers to their parents one day.

Sincerely,

Michelle L. McKinzey '07