Many changes have been made all across campus this semester to deal with COVID-19, and many more changes are likely to happen throughout the fall and into the spring.

Events have been canceled, all fall sports have been postponed and many classes have once again been moved online or taken hybrid forms.

We also needed to make some changes at The Daily Eastern News to be able to provide the very best coverage of the Eastern community that we can.

After moving online in the spring semester following the closing of campus, we are now back at Eastern and will be printing five days a week for as long as students are allowed to live in the residence halls.

Unfortunately, because of a lack of the usual events on campus and the postponement of all fall sports seasons, we will not be able to publish a full eight-page newspaper each day. Beginning next week, we will print an abbreviated four-page paper three days a week.

The layout of the newspaper will change on the days we print only four pages, but you will still find news coverage, staff editorials, opinion columns, sports coverage and photos in the paper each day.

On our four-page days, there may also be additional stories posted on our website that could not fit into the paper.

Another change we had to make this semester is replacing the Associated Press content we normally place on page two of the paper with a new service called Capitol News Illinois. It covers state news and provides its stories and photos to other outlets for no charge. We will be bringing you this work on page two on the days we print eight pages.

We will also be changing the way we handle interviews during the pandemic to better follow social distancing protocols. We will still be approaching people for stories, but we will make sure we stay at least six feet away. We can also accommodate phone or Zoom interviews to reduce face-to-face contact.

But despite all the changes this semester, we are happy to be back on campus and printing a newspaper each day.

The Daily Eastern News remains one of just two student-run college newspaper in the state of Illinois that publishes a print edition of the newspaper each day, a fact that we are very proud of, especially in these uncertain times.

Adam Tumino is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].