A few weeks ago, Choate witnessed the dawn of a brand-new student publication, Up On the Hillside. The recently established magazine covers sporting and social events around campus, setting itself apart from similar campus periodicals such as The Press.
The origin of Up On the Hillside has its roots in the cancellation of “Around Campus,” a column from The News that published student responses to a weekly question. Two writers of “Around Campus,” Dan Thomas ’08 and Alex Klaris ’09, were very disappointed by the removal of their column. Klaris explains that it occurred because “[The News] believed [“Around Campus”] to be tacky and unnecessary to the newspaper.” Klaris and Max Mullen ’08 put their heads together to formulate an idea for a publication that would focus on student social life. “We hadn’t really seen [a socially-themed publication] on campus,” says Klaris, who is an editor of Up On the Hillside along with Dan Thomas. “We had The News, which covers news stories, and The Press, which is sports-related, but nothing to talk about the social aspect of what’s going on.”
In order to get Up On the Hillside started, the students had to have their idea approved by Dean of Students John Ford. “We had to go through [the first issue] piece by piece with him,” says Klaris. “Obviously, since it was the first issue, no one really knew what to expect.” Mr. Ford recounts approaching the new project with an open mind: “Max came to me and asked me about the possibility of running a new publication, and I told him ‘If you want to give something a try, go ahead. It has to have my approval, but I’m not discouraging you.’” After editing the first issue, Mr. Ford told the staff that they could run it one time to determine its cost. Mr. Ford explained that when it was run, the magazine was “reasonably successful and of reasonable quality… however, there were some inside jokes that I didn’t appreciate and that got by me the first time around, so we agreed that if we were to run another issue, [Max] would clean that up.” Since Up On the Hillside does not yet have a faculty adviser, Mr. Ford has also personally checked subsequent issues of the magazine; however, according to Max Mullen, English teacher Emily Piacenza has agreed to take on the responsibility.
Because of its similar appearance and format, many have compared Up On the Hillside to The Press. A rivalry seems to have emerged between the two publications as a result of Up On the Hillside’s establishment. According to members of Up On the Hillside, however, this is entirely false: “We’re Press readers,” states Mullen. Klaris explains, “People read The Press to find out about Choate sports, and Up On the Hillside to find out about the Choate social scene.” In the words of Mr. Ford, “It became apparent to me that other publications on campus were getting a little bit upset… The Press, specifically, was a little bit hurt… but the stand that I’ve taken is that, as much as possible, we want to encourage free enterprise.” However, Maggie Remsen ’09, editor-in-chief of The Press, seems to have no problem with the new periodical: “I think that our publication’s readership has not been impacted negatively. Up On the Hillside is clearly a publication meant for entertainment and parodies, which attracts a lot of readers. People just have to realize that our publications have different goals.”
Up On the Hillside is not the first Choate publication of its kind, but its creators hope that it might evolve into a successful social magazine. Klaris and Mullen tell the story of a previous magazine, Irving Washington, which met its disestablishment after running a satirical piece with racist connotations. “We’re not anything like them,” Klaris assures. “We’re just something that is along the lines of a student-run, satirical, and social publication.” He adds, “We certainly aspire to be more credible [than our predecessors]… the fact of the matter is that not everything in Up On the Hillside is humor based. We’re working as a team to make our publication more credible and more informative.”
Student opinion regarding Up On the Hillside has been generally quite positive. “[Up On the Hillside] is a very interesting new thing to read around campus… I was happy to see it,” remarks Olivia Bee ’10. Alexander Morgan ’10 compares Up On the Hillside to The Press: “It has got more in it than The Press: there’s more information, there’s more to read… it’s not just numbers and a couple of articles.” Some, however, seem to feel that Choate’s new publication is somewhat unnecessary. Francisca DaSilveira ’10 asks, “Why does Choate have a new magazine when we already have The News and The Press?” Klaris and Mullen seem quite content with the success they have experienced. “I think it’s garnered a lot of popularity,” Klaris says.
Members of Up On the Hillside are well aware that they are the newcomers to an area of Choate inhabited by other long-standing organizations. Mullen explains: “We realize we’re new… we realize that we don’t have the tradition or the history of having a Paul Mellon or a John F. Kennedy writing for us.” However, all signs seem to indicate that Up On the Hillside has what it takes to establish itself in Choate’s community of readers, tableside and otherwise. In Klaris’s words, “I want people to know that we’re here for the long run… we want to turn into a credible news source for this campus that is not related to The News or The Press.”
Kelso ’09 reads the Press while Vargas ’09 peruses UOTH.
