New Student Magazine Planned

The magazine will be for students and by students, but faculty, graduate students, and alumni may contribute. WAVES will join The Bottom Line, the monthly LIU Post student magazine, as a second student magazine on campus. The Bottom Line focuses on bringing stories about world news and current issues of interest to students, while WAVES will focus on exhibiting the creative talents of students.

“Loomings was originally a student literary magazine with a faculty advisor in the English Department. It became an art and literary magazine and then migrated to Student Life, where it was overseen by various people in Student Life roles,” Lutz said. “It never really ended, but has had an intermittent life. As students graduate, it hasn’t always had continuity in student leadership. Particularly after it left the English Department, it hasn’t had a continuous existence because there hasn’t been anyone to recruit new populations of students to work on it.”

Much like Loomings, WAVES will be student-run, and will focus on campus art. This means that all writers, artists, and creative minds on campus will have another place to submit their creations, such as poetry, poems, nonfiction, fiction, narrative essays, comics, and anything else of that nature.

WAVES will also utilize an online journal, as well as social media, to keep students engaged, all of which will be launched on the first day of the Fall 2015 semester. The website will feature pieces as collected, allowing for a steady stream of new content that will constantly be accessible.

“Anything you do that you want people to see, submit it. The only thing I don’t want [are things that are overdone]. It has to be creative and something from you, not replications of other artists,” Aiveoli said.

The magazine will function as a club with a faculty advisor, and funding has still yet to be determined. “I’m not trying to make money,” Aievoli said. “I’m trying to show off the campus talent that hides because they don’t play sports or participate in Greek Life or other clubs.” The actual cost of the magazine has not yet been decided, but it will most likely be sold for five to ten dollars as a way to fund printing and other costs. The Bottom Line, in contrast, is provided free for students.

In addition to the website, the decision to work with the English department will help the magazine to gain more material, and maintain the magazine as students graduate and move on. “The English department will communicate with students in English classes and encourage them to become involved and submit poetry, short fiction, and art. A return to the faculty advising model will provide continuity from one year to the next and ensure that the magazine publishes issues regularly,” Lutz said.

With a steady stream of students in the English department increasingly taking creative writing courses that are offered, the hope is that students will continue the magazine while providing new content.

Because the magazine is in the early stages of development, it is unsure yet how many issues will be published per semester, particularly due to the strong focus on online journal access. Students are already excited about the prospect of a literary magazine coming to campus.