Lucy Levinson is the Editor-in-Chief of The Cooper Square. Her writing has appeared in Salon and Washington Square News. This is her last semester at NYU, where she’s studied journalism, French, and creative writing.  

Q: We just launched The Cooper Square, a publication showcasing student work at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. What do you think sets us apart from other publications? 

A: Our primary focus is not delivering the news but publishing great work by journalism students. In conceiving how The Cooper Square would function, we thought a good bit about how it can fulfill its mission for both underclassmen in "The Written Word" and graduate students in a multimedia elective. We placed a unique emphasis on the formation of student journalists and editors.

Q: You're the Editor-in-Chief. How did you get involved, and what have you learned from the process so far? 

A: I got involved with The Cooper Square thanks to a serendipitous circumstance, which was that I took John Surico and Whitney Dangerfield’s “From Pitch to Publication” class last summer. I was then included when Whitney, being one of The Square’s advisors, reached out to undergrads she knew who might want to be a part of the inaugural masthead.

The process has certainly been formative, and I've relished in getting a lot of editing practice. Also, I think the everyday slog (and joy) of meetings and emails and thinking all adds up to a lot learned; I feel more ready for anything after spending these past months in the thick of it — gradually deciding what we wanted The Cooper Square to be and then building up the necessary material infrastructure, establishing an editorial workflow, and then making sure it actually worked. 

Q: Can you talk about what kinds of stories we're looking for and how students can pitch? 

A: We’re looking for features and news stories in written, audio, and video formats. That obviously leaves it pretty open. I’d say the salient throughline is that we always want to see that a story has been well-reported. With occasional exceptions (for instance, a Q & A), we look for at least three sources. Also, we would direct any stories about NYU and university news to other news publications on “campus.” If you’re unsure if your story is a good fit for The Cooper Square, you can always just pitch it or come find one of us and ask. 

Students can pitch us by submitting to the Google Forms on the pitch page of our website. We publish both undergraduate and graduate students; we encourage students to pitch their favorite stories they’ve written as coursework, but we also welcome pitches for stories that students want to pursue outside of class.

We are also doing a regular photo feature called "The Lens," where students can submit their photography for consideration.

Q: What are you looking forward to doing with the publication during the rest of the semester? 

A: After spending all excess energy on getting the website up and running, I’m excited to delegate attention back to managing the newsroom, working on making sure we’re doing justice to the lovely pitches we’re getting from students, and spreading the word about The Square. 

Photo by Brewer Roberts