Ode to Andre: Hilltop Views staff bids adieu to current news offices

This farewell to our former offices in Andre Hall was composed by the Hilltop Views staff. 

Today marks the last Hilltop Views production to take place in these offices. Andre, thanks for being the space where we got to work and learn alongside such brilliant student journalist colleagues — and can’t wait to see all that we accomplish next semester in Holy Cross Hall.

These offices have been the breeding ground for success in the news media field. 

Our editors have left these offices and gone on to graduate journalism programs at CUNY, and Newhouse to name a few.

Editors have also upgraded from these offices to one at CNN, the Statesman, KXAN, the Dallas Morning News and many more.

Current staff has interned at Austin Monthly, Texas Monthly and Austin Way Magazine.

As former Editor-in-Chief Jacob Rogers said, “the floor of Andre Hall is hard,” and many all-nighters have been pulled in these offices.

This is why we invested in a free hand-me-down couch with holes and tears that our advisor Jena Heath despises, along with our Topper Tat column.

Andre Hall is synonymous with Hilltop Views in our minds, and leaving it will be very strange. We’ve collectively spent more time than should be allowed by law in this office.

It’s been our home away from home in many ways.

Rookie copy-editors saw “Welcome to Andre Hell” on the building’s directory and wondered “What did we get ourselves into?”

With the current staff, you can likely catch verbal obscenities and Ed Sheeran songs being blasted, although the official anthem of HV is “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel.

You can read overtly sexual and non-journalistic quotes on our white boards, memes plastered on our walls next to the uninspirational tumblr quotes. Even memes we ourselves created, such as former Viewpoints editor and genuine American hero Sully Lockett caressing a photoshopped version of himself.

Thank you to all of the faculty and staff in Andre for putting up with our antics like rolling down boxes in the hallway, and once having a ferret running loose in the hall.

We’ve all appreciated the third stall of the seemingly haunted restroom two doors down.

Historic moments have passed by in this office. We hung up the front page of the Statesman the day after Osama bin Laden died. Former Editor-in-Chief Rosemond Crown planned a unity event on the seal the day after the election of President Donald Trump in these offices.

Many arguments have ensued over what the AP style rule is, or a two-hour argument on a how a front-page lede should read.

Tough editorial decisions have been made and reflection on mistakes have been talked out.

We leave Andre with heavy hearts and heavy lungs of asbestos but are excited to see the new water fountains in Holy Cross with hopefully imbibable water.