We descended the narrow staircase into the darkened basement of the Briton Hadden Memorial Building, grim and determined. The derelict darkroom still smelled of photography chemicals, and a layer of dust coated every surface. We dug through boxes; we combed the shelves. Our mission was briefly derailed when Chris encountered a large cockroach, but his shrill cries of “Oh my God, a cockroach!” soon subsided, and we continued to search. At last we found them: two gleaming new eMacs, consigned to the basement months, even years ago for reasons long forgotten.

We hauled them upstairs to our new office and placed them on a table we had laboriously dragged down from the third floor. At last, the magazine had a home in 202 York Street. No more would we live like nomads, using whatever computer happened to be free on a given night. Being bleeding-heart writers, we felt obligated to imbue the moment with profound symbolism: just as we now had a place in the Yale Daily News building, so too did the magazine now have a place on the Yale campus.

One year ago, our predecessors rescued the magazine from obscurity and irrelevance. On Oct. 4, they handed us the reins.

In this month’s cover story, Amanda Ruggeri examines another group also striving to secure a place for itself on campus. Islam is the third largest religious denomination on campus, yet until recently, its adherents have not had access to the same resources as Christians or Jews at Yale. Amanda looks at the progress Muslims have made in forming a cohesive community and what still remains to be done.

Kathleen Reeves writes about a more secular community in her story, “My Big Fat Greek Life”: fraternities. Their impact on the culture of colleges across the nation has been controversial over the past few years, as more and more administrations begin to doubt their legitimacy. Reeves tries to look beyond alcohol and Late Nite parties in her analysis of how fraternities fit into the educational and social life of the Yale campus.

Finally, Jessica Tanenbaum travels to the suburbs of Chicago and finds the intersection of two communities. In “Eli-mentary School” she spends time in Yale Elementary, a Chicago public school in dire need of teachers and resources. She follows the lives of two Yale University alumni who are determined to improve the school and documents the frustrations they encounter.

We hope you enjoy our first issue as the new Yale Daily News Magazine Editors.

–Jen Harris and Chris Lapinig