Editorial #288

Welcome back! We, at The Saint, hope you had a lovely Spring Break and enjoyed your well-deserved week off, whether that was abroad, at home, or here in St Andrews. The Saint also took a little hiatus, which was perhaps to your dismay, but I can safely say that Issue 288 contains excellent content. Our Devil’s Advocate asks: ‘Does ‘High Culture deserve its status?’, a whimsy article on butterflies appears in Sci-Tech, and in The Relic, an article by Samuel Thayre discusses the benefits of living next to the sea and reminds students to appreciate St Andrews’ geographical splendour. 

I have always lived near the sea. At home in Aberdeenshire, my house is two minutes away from the sea; If I open my door and go onto my street, I can see the North Sea waves crashing against the shore. Parallel to this, in St Andrews I reside two minutes away from the sea. Perhaps the smell of briny foam and the aural quality of the waves has been a subconscious compass in my life. I always feel drawn to the sea in times of despair: it grounds me and acts as a reminder that there is a world beyond. As much as I love the seclusion and forest glades of cherished sites like Royal Deeside in Aberdeenshire, I could never quell my desire to be “beside the seaside, beside the sea.” 

The sea provides a space to discover new perspectives and reassess matters. Assessing things is a primal quality of journalists. Our front-page article, an interview with Rector Stella Maris, is a figment of that quality. It is anchored by an assessment of student representation in St Andrews, uncovering the wider implications of Maris’ dismissal from the University Court seven months later. Rector Maris’ tenure has been marred by controversy, and being St Andrews’ flagship newspaper, The Saint bears a continual duty to its readers to diligently report on such issues which remain pertinent to the student body. The interview is the first time Maris has spoken to The Saint since her dismissal, and it will be a benchmark in The Saint’s catalogue of prominent interviews. 

As we collectively move past the midway point and towards the conclusion of the Candlemas semester, there exists a time for assessment: of how you have progressed, what you have learned, and your next steps for the final snippet of the semester. 

In the meantime, enjoy what is an excellent issue from The Saint,  David.