The “B.EAST” has awoken at the University of Oregon.
UO Students from the Bean East Residence Hall have started their own magazine publication, The B.EAST! — an acronym for “Bean” East — Magazine, a digital magazine that showcases the Bean East students’ photography, essays, poems and art.
David Reis, a visiting professor in religious studies, came up with the idea of putting together a magazine that showcases the hall’s creativity and academics so the students could use the magazine as a self-confidence booster and to show them that academics comes in many forms.
“Academics is integrated in all university life,” Reis said. “And I wanted to generate enthusiasm to the students in Bean by creating a literary magazine that helps them become familiar with submitting projects for review and publication for research and grants”
Reis’ idea for the magazine took on a life of its own once the creative staff and Bean East Hall residents Allison Brown, Emily Schnepp and Mackenzie Jeffcott came on board. In their initial meetings, they decided to make the magazine exclusively digital because of budget restraints and for the option of adding multimedia clips and links.
Reis and the student editors initially had a difficult time assembling the B.EAST. The software they were using to create the magazine was relatively new to all four of them, but through trial and error they were able to release their first issue in February.
“It was kind of hectic at first, and we didn’t know what we were doing,” Schnepp said. “But we put out a ‘premature magazine’ to see what it would look like and to spread the word about our magazine. We were a little clumsy at first, but we got the hang of it, and we turned it into something really cool.”
The magazine’s content is comprised primarily of essays, photography, poetry and paintings from the students in Bean East. The theme of their first issue came from the popular children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are.” The cover and pages throughout the magazine contain images from the book.
“We wanted an easy entry image that students were familiar with, and we figured most students were familiar with this children’s story,” Reis said. “We wanted to have an image that made students do a double-take when they see the magazine.”
Reis and the students are working on putting together a spring issue, which they’re expecting to be released towards the end of spring term. They haven’t decided yet whether student submissions will expand beyond the Bean East residents, but Reis said they’re not opposed to the idea.
“For the students who submit to the magazine, I think it empowers them and gives them confidence to give them academic voices. I mean, it’s not easy for a student to submit poetry for everyone to see,” Reis said. “I hope that this magazine helps empower students to craft an original academic voice that will help them achieve their goals.”
—By Craig Garcia, University Communications intern