What kind of news does The Berkeley Beacon cover?

The Berkeley Beacon covers Emerson College campus news, academic and study-abroad programming, Boston-area stories, and opinion content. It is Emerson College's only independent, student-run newspaper, published online daily and in print on Thursdays during the academic year. If you want reporting on Emerson's administration, student government, campus facilities, and the college's presence in Boston, this is the publication to follow.

Campus news

The Beacon's core beat is Emerson itself. Recent coverage includes:

• Student government: Reporting on the Student Government Association's first general assembly of the semester, including the new executive team of Executive President Jazzy Compton and Executive Vice President Charlie Cocozza.
• Campus facilities: The official opening of the Cutler-Winn Commons at the corner of Tremont and Boylston, including remarks by President Jay Bernhardt honoring Teddy Cutler.
• Enrollment and administration: Stories such as Emerson's "significant" enrollment increase after years of decline, and the college's partnership with the architecture firm HDR Inc.
• Student life: Events like the Emerson ASL Club's first Deaf Coffee Chat, which brought students together to practice American Sign Language outside the classroom.

Academic and study-abroad programs

The Beacon treats global and academic programming as a regular subject, not an occasional feature. Examples from its coverage:

• The annual Emerson Study Abroad Fair, held at the Bill Bordy Theater, which the paper described as a one-stop destination for students exploring foreign programs.
• The Kasteel Well program, which turned forty this year — the Beacon examined what kind of legacy the Netherlands program is leaving.

This makes the paper useful if you are a prospective or current student weighing overseas options, or an alum tracking how these programs evolve.

Boston and Massachusetts news

The Beacon also reports on the city and state where Emerson sits:

• A Massachusetts 9/11 fund commemoration at the State House marking the 25th anniversary and honoring victims and everyday heroes.
• The Great Elephant Migration public art installation leaving Boston's Back Bay.
• A police investigation into an early morning incident on Boston Common that left one person dead.

These stories connect the college community to the wider city rather than covering Boston as a separate, general-interest beat.

Opinion, comics, and letters

The opinion section runs alongside the news desk and includes:

• Op-Eds, such as a piece on "The Kissing Booth" and how bad-boy rom-coms affect relationships.
• Comics, including the strip "Fake IDs only."
• Letters from the editor, such as the Editor-in-Chief's statement that the Beacon stands with the White House press pool.

The paper also disclosed its own involvement in at least one story: it was a co-sponsor of an event supporting journalists after a judge blocked a media ban, and Editor-In-Chief Katie Cressman gave remarks there. That kind of transparency note is worth watching for if you want to distinguish straight reporting from the paper's own advocacy.

What this means for you

One caveat: the Beacon is student-run and independent of the college, so its reporting reflects student journalists' priorities and resources. It publishes online daily and in print on Thursdays during the academic year — outside that window, expect lighter output.