Farewell Note from Former Editor-in-Chief
Farewell Note from the Former Editor-in-Chief
Former editor Andrew Thompson reflects on his time at W&L and its future.
(Thompson standing in front of Chavis Hall on W&L’s Colonnade. | SOURCE: Author)
Dear colleagues and loyal readers,
The rush of end-of-year senior festivities, post-grad travel, and the start of my professional life got ahead of me, and now that the dust has settled, I want to say a proper farewell to a mainstay of my time at Washington and Lee University: our beloved W&L Spectator.
I became an editor of The Spectator in late summer of 2022, along with Kamron Spivey, ‘24, as co-editor and Henry Haden, ‘25, as business manager. We hit the ground running with a resurrected print edition and a focus on reporting campus news neglected by the Ring-tum Phi and hidden by the administration.
Working with Kamron and Henry to develop impactful content and, in effect, learn to run a small business was my most fulfilling and valuable involvement at W&L. I am pleased to call both of them now good friends, and I have been privileged to grow close to the rising generation of Spectator staff who will now fulfill the paper’s mission.
The past few years have borne tangible fruits. Our staff grew sevenfold from three to 21, and we’ve doubled the volume of our reporting and opinion pieces, from 54 articles in 2022-23 to 108 in 2024-25, allowing us to emerge as a potent force in shaping the campus conversation and instilling the traditions of Washington and Lee University.
We’ve maintained our traditional role as a defender of General Robert E. Lee’s legacy as university president and his vision for a liberal arts education. I’m also happy that we took stances appreciated by students more broadly, regardless of their opinion of Lee. For instance, students of all stripes admired our defense of free speech by inviting high-profile conservative speakers; likewise, our reporting of administrators’ shakedown of students through required, excessive meal plans attracted widespread plaudits and spawned a grassroots petition to roll back expensive meal plan policies.
Another issue that I hope will attract broad opposition is the expansion of upper-division housing, which has the potential to evolve into mandatory on-campus senior housing. All who love W&L know that this poses an existential risk to our social culture, sense of place, and belonging in the community.
I hope The Spectator vigilantly monitors discussions of additional upper-division housing. I also hope that alumni will work to resist and block attempts by administrators to coerce students to live on campus.
Alumni must highlight this and other issues related to the increasing administrative oversight of student life; they then must side with students to preserve our school’s relative student autonomy and freedom. Our history is important, but focusing on the day-to-day experience of current students offers the surest way to preserve the best of the W&L experience.
Overreach into students lives, in my eyes, offers W&L’s social engineers a back door to alter our culture and destroy our school’s unique identity, regardless of whom the university is named after. Alex Miller, now in his second year as Vice President of Student Affairs, worries me: reports indicate that he feels compelled to create busybody initiatives to justify his job, many of which will have unfortunate consequences.
“Administrators are not your friends” is sage advice that The Spectator — and current students writ large — must remember. These people cannot be trusted and have insidious agendas, as seasoned W&L students, faculty, and alumni know well. Anyone fortunate enough to attend W&L during the pandemic recognizes admins’ potential for oppressive power-trips.
Despite the risk of growing administrative control, we have the best opportunity in a generation to change the trajectory of our school, maintaining and reprising Washington and Lee’s unique identity as a storied Southern liberal arts college. The Spectator will be a key dynamo of that regeneration.
Any such effort is not possible without generous alumni support, and I thank all alumni who have contributed their time and money to our publication. Thank you especially to Jack Fencl, ‘22, Dennis Hull, ‘22, and Iain McCleod, ‘22, for getting me involved with The Spectator and their continued involvement as advisors and directors. And thank you to our other alumni directors and board of advisors members: your wisdom is valued dearly, and you show that The Spectator is bigger than one time or class of students.
Of course, The Spectator could also not function without the students running it: thank you to my former peers who contributed articles, joined our staff, and attended our events. You all show that the study body still cares about the unique character of W&L.
I encourage any current students who share my fondness for Washington and Lee University to join up and undertake the noble work of ensuring our school remains “a place like no other,” both during your time here and for generations to come.
Farewell, and Roll Gennies!
Andrew L. Thompson, ‘25
Andrew L. Thompson was an editor of The Spectator from August 2022 until April 2025. He now lives in Charlotte, N.C.
The opinions expressed in this magazine are the authors’ own and do not reflect the official policy or position of The Spectator, or any students or other contributors associated with the magazine. It is the intention of The Spectator to promote student thought and civil discourse, and it is our hope to maintain that civility in all discussions.
