By Mirna Shidrawi---

With the celebration of the fourth anniversary of a revived Outlook, I ask myself: Where does Outlook stand at the end of this academic year?

Outlook stands on the top of a cliff, and the bottom of a mountain. Outlook has crossed a mile in its journey to success and still has many more to go.

However, this student-run institution has achieved a number of significant accomplishments that have paved the way for the coming years and built the foundations of a solid institution. These accomplishments have not only made the Outlook team proud, but also put Outlook under the spotlight.

In this past year, Outlook shifted from a biweekly publication to a more interactive weekly newspaper. Moreover, the newspaper shifted from fancy 100g white paper to the usual newspaper 45g roll-paper. Outlook had to sacrifice aesthetics for the sake of the freshness of the news. Outlook now prints within 24 hours as opposed to the previous ten-day delay.

The scope of readership was widened from 3,000 to approximately 6,000. Such an enlargement in the audience was achieved through the erection of 11 circulation boxes around campus.

To keep up with technological developments, Outlook further developed its web site, and worked hard to present its readers with a user-friendly, easy- to-navigate site. By January 2001, Outlook managed to introduce a daily news update section. The "Today's News" section proved to be a success, the number of visitors totaling more than 5,500 hits.

Outlook also worked diligently on selling advertisement space, and a boom in ads can be noticed in the last month or so. These modestly generated revenues have been used and will continue to be used for the developing of the infrastructure and technology used in the production.

The lack of an appropriate journalism program in AUB has hindered the development of the journalistic skills of the Outlook team. Thus, we had to learn from our mistakes, and search for guidance from a few outside sources. Nevertheless, Outlook was able to present its readers with a variety of strong and well-researched editorials, opinion pieces, and features throughout the year. Many of the staff opinions written during the year had their effect not only on the students but also on decision-making authorities on campus. Following Outlook's support of more transparency in University hiring practices, we saw a general presentation given by a candidate applying for the position of Dean of Student Affairs. The candidate came on campus, presented his views, and then answered student questions.

The only technical drawback Outlook faced this year was the failure to establish an appropriate Arabic section. We were able to publish only three pages of Arabic this year, largely due to the lack of appropriate Arabic-compatible software and technology and the restrictions of our limited budget.

Socially, where does Outlook stand? We have heard and been directly told that we have been accused of being a closed circle of friends, a clique which does not allow nor welcome new members.

To what extent is that true? Well, let us examine together some facts about the recruitment and orientation process that Outlook went through this year. At the beginning of the fall semester, five new members joined Outlook: a freshman, two juniors, a senior, and a fourth-year engineering student. By February, four other new members joined: a freshman, a sophomore, a junior, and a third-year mechanical engineering student.

Throughout the year, we have addressed the AUB community, through e-mail, the AUB calendar, and through our pages asking students to join our rank and file.

Our new office, which we moved to in December because of the renovation of West Hall, is an area of approximately 25 square meters. At a certain period, Outlook had an average of 20 members. To go into physics, if we assume that each staff member needs an average of one square meter for oxygen intake, and then add to that the space needed for the furniture and the computers, this leads us to the assumption that the Outlook office can not accommodate more than its current capacity. In other words, no matter how much we advertise to recruit new staff, Outlook is always going to have a shortage of space.

However, the rumor goes on to claim that more senior members of the staff are not welcoming and have their own social circle. With a weekly publication full of deadlines of printers, advertisers, and readers waiting for us every week, pressure down here is intolerable. Nevertheless, regular staff members have to delete both the words "vacation" and "weekend" from their dictionaries, since all Saturdays and Sundays (with overnights) are spent on production.

As a matter of fact, there is always someone available in the Outlook office. Just try to call our extension 3193 and check whether someone will answer you or not. The office is the place where the Outlook team lives. On weekends, when staff friends come to visit at the office, many times these guests leave feeling they weren't given due attention. Well, what do you expect, with everyone at his/her machine scanning pictures, typing articles, copy-editing, doing layout design and web site design, and discussing articles with each other?

New recruits who joined Outlook and became members realized that our time for socializing is minimal. The Outlook team basically has no life. Still, in many instances we manage to go out between extended hours of work. Some manage to keep contact with the outside world, dress up, and go to fancy places. The others who are too tired to go through that hassle, just lazily spend some more time together in a simple place where they don't have to worry about what they are wearing or even looking like.

We certainly realize that the editorial team is more than a team, it is a family by default, and to our knowledge, our output testifies that this family has been working in harmony.

To all students who plan to join our team, they are most welcome to do so whenever they please. If they find us unfriendly, then we are all ears.