Questionnaire #5 With Katherine Baima, Editor-in-Chief of The Watermark (2016-2017)

Question #1: Can you please introduce yourself a little and tell me how long you worked at The Watermark? How did you come to join the staff? 

1. I'm Katherine, and I worked at the Watermark for about two years. I started as a part-time volunteer and became Editor in Chief in my senior year, so I only really had any degree of ownership for about a year. As I understand it, there weren't many candidates for the gig! I actually can't remember how I originally joined, but I remember really liking everyone in the media publication staff (so the school paper and The Watermark) and feeling a strong sense of camaraderie, especially when we all went on a joint trip to a media conference in NYC. Those days were really fun. 

I was an English major and graduated at the top of my class, so at that time my entire world was UMB and Literature. My year as EIC was a weird one: it was 2016-2017, the year Trump was first elected, and the mood on campus and especially in the English department was melancholic to say the least.

Question #2: What was the culture of the journal like at the time, to the best of your recollection? Feel free to include anecdotes or personal recollections as you like. 

1. This may be somewhat of a downer, but it was a bit of a one-woman show. Most of the folks in the publication offices were staff and volunteers for the school newspaper, and The Watermark called for submissions about once a quarter. I did most of the review and editing myself, and I maybe should have reached out for more volunteers but the submission volume wasn't high enough to justify them. 

Question #3: What was student engagement like during your time at The Watermark, as best you can remember, how many submissions on average did you get per issue? How many people worked together to produce an issue? 

1. I think I received a maximum of 100 submissions during my year as EiC, but many came from the same people who submitted multiple entries. I produced an issue alone, which was a bit lonely. I wish I could have piqued more interest or worked with a larger team. I often think still of the dual Editors in Chief before me, and I think their partnership generated more enthusiasm for the journal than I could alone. I had promoted the journal quite a bit within my classes and within the English department, but maybe it was just a tough year. My editor's note in the front of my issue was actually fairly political in nature because I discussed how the arts were important despite a national climate that sought to trivialize them. I was grateful for every submission, although the majority of them tended to be pretty melancoholic in nature. I'm not sure if that's due to the time period (Trump's election and first term) or if that's fairly standard.

Question #4: Do you have any memory of how many copies of each issue were made that you worked on? Some editors' notes say ‘This Volume had 4,000 copies made’ and others don’t track production rates. Even a rough guess would be super helpful. 

1. My rough guess is 1,000 copies, but I unfortunately could be way off. 

Question #4.5: How were copies you did print distributed on campus? 

1. I think I distributed all of them myself. I remember carting around massive stacks and carts of them to leave out all around the campus, and mine were a lovely pink color because I wanted something eye-catching! 

I recall the administrator, Donna, being disappointed in my minimalist design, thinking perhaps that it was lower effort. But I was at that time a minimalist who liked a clean, serious look!  

Question #5:  What was institutional support for The Watermark like in your time working at it? What did UMass-provided expertise, mentorship, and support look like?

1. It was a tough year for sure. Donna, the administrator who was beloved for running (I believe) the on-campus publication and media departments for decades, passed away shortly after my time as EiC, and she was in poor health during my year at the helm. That's no knock against her, I just mean that there were pretty limited resources available to me. I was kind of on my own. It was a weird year. 

Question #6: Some copies of The Watermark mention being able to buy copies online before the website went down. Do you recall if The Watermark had interest from people outside / off of UMass Boston’s Campus? Essentially, what was its reach? 

1. Definitely zero interest in my year, but that might have been a personal failing. You definitely couldn't buy a copy online!

Question #7: While you worked at The Watermark, was there an institutional memory of its past? By that I mean did The Watermark have an archival memory of itself and how it related to predecessors like Howth Castle, or was it more future facing towards producing the next issues? 

1. I was pretty lucky to have had a good relationship with both the prior editors, Nicole and Jaran, who provided a sense of continuity and history. There also was available to me at some point a historical overview of prior issues (although not comprehensive), and it actually made me feel a bit sad and small as an Editor because it seemed like in prior years there had been way more student involvement and institutional enthusiasm for it. 

Followup Edits:

1. I promoted the journal outside of just my own classes and the department; I put up a boatload of posters calling for submissions each quarter. I realize my wording makes it seem like I only called for submissions within the English department, which is not the case.

2. According to my editor's note, I did have volunteers! If I stretch my memory I can recall now that I did have one or two folks help review and edit submissions, but it was quite limited work due to the limited submission volume.