By Oscar Gonzalez
Hello fellow Jaguars!
Just like the weather, there are changes happening at The Mesquite, Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s student-run news site. My name is Oscar Gonzalez, the new Editor-in-Chief of, and I will be your tour guide for this letter.
As the new Editor-in-Chief, I’d like to lay out some of the changes you can look forward to in The Mesquite, but I’d first like to thank our former editors — Alma Linda Manzanares, Emily Rodriguez, Andrew Kirkpatrick, Rebecca Salinas and Jennifer Luna. These student editors were instrumental in the growth of The Mesquite and mentoring of staff writers, like me, over the course of three semesters. We wish them all the best and thank them for the work they did over this past year to transition our team from the Brooks City-Base Campus to our expanded Mac Lab and student newsroom.
The new editorial staff includes a well trained team. Next month, Gloria Petit begins work as managing/online editor, Jacob Beltran returns for a second stint on staff as community and public editor, Jesse Cazares as marketing/advertising manager and Monica LaMadrid returns for a third semester as photo and multimedia editor.
Starting Spring 2015,the staff and I will delve into new technologies to improve our reporting capabilities and help The Mesquite grow. We began to experiment with new digital tools to use on the site and looking forward to provide more multimedia content such as more videos, a podcast and possibly a livestream.
More importantly, we want you, the readers of The Mesquite, to be more interactive with us. As fellow students, we work for you.
Changes are already in place to revamp the site to allow more interaction from the readers.
We also want to reach out to the students and campus groups in hopes that we can report on your achievements, highlights, and even your growing pains in The Mesquite.
I recently met with Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson, sole finalist and interim president of A&M-SA, to talk about communication. We’re both excited about the opportunities in the future to work with each other to provide more transparency and communication between the administration and students.
If you feel that you are not being listened to, feel free to contact us.
The staff and I of The Mesquite wish you a safe and Happy Holidays and we’ll see you in January.
