Readers, I am so excited and fortunate to announce that the 2024-2025 Spectator Editorial Board will be under the leadership of this year’s managing editor, Chloe Platt. Her work with The Spectator thus far has been equal parts diligent and delightful, exemplified both in her writing and editing. Throughout this work, her love for both the craft and the people she interacts with is clear.
“I really love people, and I really love storytelling. I think journalism is a beautiful opportunity to take the care that I have for others… and be a voice for them—and to not only learn things about others, but learn things about yourself.”
Platt moves with such grace and patience you might not realize she’s also secretly the busiest person on campus. Aside from being a third-year communication and media major, managing editor of The Spectator and a regular broadcast aficionado of Campus Currents (see: her work as anchor and teleprompter operator and studio manager and script writer), Platt also serves as the director of marketing and outreach on the Residence Hall Association’s Executive Council, section leader and social media manager for the Seattle University Choir, and an office assistant at Learning Assistance Programs in the library. At the risk of another run-on sentence, I’d also highlight that Platt is an academic: a recently published author in the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal and a research assistant and copyeditor in the philosophy department.
All this to say, Platt is not only a highly involved student on campus, but cares so much about those commitments as well. As Editor-in-Chief, I’ve had the privilege of her being my partner-in-publishing. One particular vignette comes to mind: in an especially late night of Spectator work fall quarter, I feel stress getting the better of me. Chloe sits me down and talks me through my concerns, and offers her help. I’m suddenly acutely aware that I don’t have to face this alone—none of us can do it alone.
That message is one that stood out to me from our interview. Platt highlighted how The Spectator can serve as a hub for different voices, but all of whom are drawn together by a similar passion.
“I think The Spectator has a way of drawing a crowd of people that do care about different things from different perspectives, but that just have passion. And to me, that is the most beautiful thing a person can have… I think sometimes all it takes to get somebody started on a journey is [telling them] ‘You are really amazing at this thing.’ And sometimes I think people just need to hear about what’s lovely about them,” Platt said.
For such an accomplished and eloquent writer, it came as a surprise that Platt admitted to being too nervous to visit The Spectator offices for the entirety of her freshman year. When asked what she would now tell that freshman-year version of herself, Platt considered her answer for a moment.
“I think that I would give myself permission to mess up,” Platt said. “But I think telling her that ‘you care, and that is vastly more important than any technical skills you can have. You can learn to write, you can learn to interview, learn to edit, learn AP style, but you already know how to care. And you already know how to be passionate about what you do.’”
Platt is a poet, something that I believe is found at the heart of all her writing. In the literal sense, poetry and writing is the topic of many of her articles. But a desire to seek out beauty in the world, to draw it out and capture it, is an expression of love of the world and the people in it. This care is something that Platt hopes others pursue in their own work, and would encourage them to cultivate through The Spectator.
“If you care about something, come and write about it, come and take a picture of it, come and make a design about it, come and pitch it and leave. This is for everyone who’s ever cared about anything, which I know is everyone. And so I just want to encourage that. This is a safe space to be passionate about whatever it is that moves you.”
You can find a link to a video interview with Platt here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVjs6FQtwfQ
