Lula Burke, Editor-in-Chief—

The fonts on this page, the sentences in these stories, and the content in each section of this paper was proofed by Aaron Skubby ‘23 just a few days ago. He sent an email to the printing company at 5:00 on Monday asking for 1,000 full-color copies of his final paper as Editor-in-Chief.

Aaron’s involvement with The Denisonian began his first week of college. 

“When I got [to campus], I saw the table at the involvement fair, and I knew that it was something that I wanted to try out,” he said. “They had open interviews for anyone who wanted to be an assistant editor and they said that you didn’t need any experience, so I gave it a go because I was just looking for things to do. Back then, I was a first-year student who hadn’t burned out yet…I had way too much free time, so I would sign up for like three stories a week.” 

After starting as an assistant news editor, Skubby was Editor-in-Chief by the end of his sophomore year. He saw both ends of the COVID-19 pandemic, received Twitter backlash over an Op-ed, and has worked on over 65 issues of the newspaper. 

However, The Denisonian is just one of the many things with which Skubby fills his time–he’s outgoing President of the Interfraternity Council, manager at the Writing Center, and a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. One may assume that Skubby came to Denison as a spritely, outgoing freshman, but that wouldn’t be quite right. 

“I had a very narrow world-view freshman year. To be honest, I didn’t really like it here, and I was very much a homebody. I didn’t feel like I was connecting with a lot of people, because I wasn’t into going out or doing a whole lot of socializing,” he said. 

This changed when an acquaintance of his asked him to a cookout, where Skubby said “the worst case scenario was that I had to meet a few new people.” So, he went. 

“I really wasn’t that interested, but I made a gametime decision right when it was happening. I ended up really liking a lot of the people I met. That interaction exposed me to something I was lacking, which was positive male friendships,” Skubby said. “Freshman year I had a lot of female friends, but it really introduced me to a group of people that I felt I really connected with.”

The cookout was part of a brotherhood event hosted by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, which aims to “foster an enjoyable fraternal experience centered on brotherhood, personal growth, and creating a sense of home among its members.” For Skubby, it did exactly that. 

“Honestly, if I had to point to something in my college experience that turned it around from being a first year student who wanted to transfer, it was joining Beta.”

Joining Beta gave Skubby the opportunity to do things with his friends that couldn’t be done otherwise, and it allowed him to grow into himself as a person. 

“We have a house that we can hang out in, we pool our money to go on cabin trips and brotherhood events–It’s where I found my closest friends. I’ll be having dinner with my close friends and realize that everyone there I met through joining Beta,” he said. 

As Skubby was finding his social niche, he was expanding in his academic life, too–along with his writing endeavors, he is a philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) major. Though he has specific interests in criminal justice reform, he really loves the major for its focus on discussion and interpersonal relations. 

“I love the professors who teach all of them, but I also enjoy the style of the class. You do a reading that has contemporary applications, and they’re all discussion-based classes,” he said. “I like the classes where you actually get to have discussions with your peers and aren’t necessarily lecture-based.”

This leads to the crux of his future aspirations and his favorite Denison experiences: Skubby loves talking to people. Carter Patton ‘23 is a friend, roommate, and brother through Beta, and agreed that Skubby’s ability to connect with people is part of what makes him good at writing, talking and leading. 

“He has been an invaluable member of our chapter, as someone who is personally connected with everyone in our organization while promoting the values of our fraternity. He has served multiple roles within Beta, from social chair to diversity, equity and inclusion chair to IFC president. His ability to just carry a conversation with just about anyone he meets has helped our fraternity when communicating with other organizations on campus,” Patton said. 

 “He has been a valuable decision maker within our fraternity with an influential and insightful voice.” 

This is how Skubby successfully works with nervous writers and fraternity brothers alike.

“[My interests] all have to do with writing and interpersonal skills. IFC is not writing-based, but requires quite a bit of interpersonal stuff. That job can be tricky, because frat presidents aren’t always the most responsive group of people. The Writing Center is very writing oriented. The Denisonian really has both–you’re working on the paper and the product that you create is based on trying to have high-quality writing, but so much of it is working with people and delegating responsibilities and I think it kind of pulls the two together,” he said. 

Though he isn’t quite sure where the future will take him, he is hoping to work in the public service sphere.

“My big thing is that I want a career that is meaningful to me. I want something people oriented, trying to impact people’s lives and make them better in some way. I also like a dynamic work environment–I don’t want to just sit at a desk and work on something,” he said. “I like being in meetings, talking to people, having variety in what I do.”

He said that other students struggling to find their “niche” should rest assured that they’ll find their people–but, they should still try to put themselves out there. 

“There’s some degree of drama that comes from such a small campus. Keep in mind that there are a lot of opportunities that will come about,” he said. 

Skubby spoke to a room of about 30 people at his last Denisonian content meeting, and said his final words to a group of people that surely look up to him as a writer, speaker, and leader: I am proud to have been your Editor-in-Chief. Thank you. 

Aaron, thank you for your leadership, organization, and countless hours of time on Sunday nights (and Monday mornings). Love, The Denisonian staff.