By Megan Carradine and Marley Malenfant/reporters

The Compass will debut at a reception 6-8 p.m. Oct. 12 in the library.

Copies will be sold for $10, and pages will be displayed throughout the library. All staff members will get a free copy of the magazine.

SE English instructor Pennie Boyett serves as adviser for the magazine.

“I had a conversation with my department chairman last fall about the magazine, and we decided to give it another try,” she said. “I have a lot of experience in journalism, so I think it will be very useful.”

Boyett has taken precise steps to make sure everything is done correctly.

“My first step was to visit with the faculty editors of the literary magazines on each campus to learn everything I could about the process,” she said. “After talking to them, I realized the keys to success were student involvement and faculty support.”

For the first time, SE Campus offered a magazine production class, but the enrollment was too low.

“Only five students signed up for the class, which was not enough, so I set up an organization, the Arts Magazine Cooperative, through student activities,” she said. “The organization had its first meeting early February.” 

At the February meeting, students were charged with hustling submissions with a mid-March deadline, and they were given forms and posters to place around campus, Boyett said.

“Thanks to their hard work, there were 99 art submission and 76 literary submissions by SE Campus students, faculty and staff,” she said.

The Compass was the name chosen for the magazine. It went to press in early summer, having approximately 72 pages. The magazine includes poems, essays, short stories, photographs, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, mixed media compositions and flash fiction stories (a story in 10 words or fewer).