The Current’s team discussed and planned the Nov. 24 issue during their weekly Zoom meeting on Nov. 20.

Adviser, Debbie Mura, met with the editor, Joe Malanaphy. Both pointed that COVID-19 has affected the way the student paper is published.

“Usually, we used to stay at the campus, sometimes even spending the night there waiting to have the fresh smell of the news printed,” said Malanaphy. The team used to stay overnight to edit and send it to the printer.

However, because of the current pandemic, a print publication is not possible at this time. The social distance protocols forced The Current’s team to look forward and move to a fully online publication, Malanaphy said.

“Not everything is bad, now we can publish on time,” he said. “We do not have to wait to see if we printed the publication right. It takes one click, and the news is ready to be read.”

The way this team works is as follows: Every Friday, available editors, writers, and their adviser meet via Zoom to consider the stories from students and select the ones that The Current will publish. The Current publishes a new issue about every two weeks.

“I read the students’ news and then pass it to Joe to edit it. When he finishes the edition, the edited news goes back to me. If it is ready to be published, I give the go-ahead to do it. If it is not ready, the cycle starts again,” Mura said.

“The Monday before the publication, the deadline to publish stories is at 6 p.m.,” Malanaphy said.

The enormous challenge now is to encourage the students to take part in creating articles. The majority of Brookdale students are currently taking online classes. Ironically, the technology that is helping to get the news on time may be delaying students from getting involved.

The Current has the door open for those students who have an opinion, a story to tell, students who want to step to the front on the problems, issues, and challenges that Brookdale students are facing now. It also looks for stories on sports, music, fashion, entertainment, etc.

The team invites and encourages all Brookdale students to be part of The Current. Students do not have to be journalism majors or have any previous experience. Interested students can contact Mura at [email protected], or Malanaphy at [email protected].