MAX CURTIN, JOEY SEMEL, and LIZ ANASTASIADIS, Editors-in-Chief and Managing Editor—This last column is generally reserved for the three of us thanking our staff and others.

While we are immensely grateful for our staff and many others throughout campus, there’s one huge part of The Denisonian that often gets overlooked.

A snazzy thrifted trench coat, fashionable glasses and a collared shirt and tie are only the outward appearances of The Denisonian advisor, Alan Miller. A communication department professor, The Columbus Dispatch Editor-in-Chief, Alan is the one to call during a time for a publishing emergency.

Thank you so much for everything you have done for The Denisonian, Alan!
It’s been such a pleasure for not only the three of us but for the entire staff to get to work so closely with you for the past year.

We all deeply appreciate how dedicated you are to helping us grow as individual writers and as a collective newspaper staff.

No matter how busy you are with your work between The Columbus Dispatch, your new promotion and the Denison communication department, you always walk into our Thursday night meetings with a huge smile on your face and a marked-up copy of our latest issue (with occasional snacks).

Beyond the thoughtful feedback, you always bring stories with you to tell. Listening to what you have to say and learning from your experiences each week is the number-one reason we are able to improve as a publication week in and week out. Thank you for being so open with all of us.

These stories always have a point. We learn from them. One that sticks in our minds was about always looking around to find the story. They’re all around us if we let them be.

It’s admirable how you find a way to make yourself available to us all the time. No matter what kind of situation we found ourselves in over the course of this past year, you have always been just one phone call away. There is no one else we would rather turn to during times of crisis than you. From small questions about the publication to advice on how to cover students passing away and other hard times on this campus respectfully, you always help our staff find a way to capture life properly and vibrantly.

The experience that you have brought to the table over the years has been irreplaceable. The feedback that you give (jokingly and seriously) has shaped The Denisonian staff into better writers. Specific feedback like encouraging us to use “toward” instead of “towards” in articles, telling writers to make more condensed and newsy leads to stories and being a constant help with small AP style mistakes and the layout of the newspaper has taught us what it’s like to be in a real newsroom.

Not to mention, at the end of each semester there are always awaited dinners at your house to look forward to. In the winter, your house is dressed up to holiday cheer; In the spring, the picnics in your backyard are welcoming and warming to the staff always. Also, a special thank you to your wife, Kris Miller, who cooks the meals for us. The bread and cookies are always amazing and helpful in light of finals week approaching. Not to mention, your cats offer entertainment while we hang out and chat about the news after dinner.

You are an essential and loved part of The Denisonian family and we’re extremely honored to have your guidance. The only thing we ask is that you try not to work too hard (and not to be sad listening to podcasts in the morning before work in your car).

Max Curtin ‘21 is a global commerce and economics double major with a Spanish minor from Manchester, New Hampshire.

Joey Semel ‘21 is a communication major and psychology minor from McLean, Virginia.

Liz Anastasiadis ‘21 is a creative writing major with a concentration in narrative journalism from Warren, Ohio.