By Mattie Lugar
On March 26-29 Susquehanna hosted the annual FUSE Conference, and I had the privilege of not only attending the conference but also planning it. The annual conference is a way for different universities to come together and talk about issues different undergraduate literary journals, magazines, and even newspapers are facing.
Outside of students from Susquehanna, students from Penn State University, SUNY Geneseo, Shippensburg University, Cedar Crest College, and the University of North Dakota were in attendance. While the conference itself didn’t have an all-encompassing theme like last year, schools had the opportunity to propose panels; the topics of censorship, funding, and even membership retention came up.
As part of my current internship with FUSE: Society for Student Editors, I was responsible for helping to plan the conference and do outreach with different schools. This was a process that started early last semester after compiling a list of schools to reach out to.
Along with the panels, there was a student publication showcase where the different schools that attended had the opportunity to show off their magazines. This felt like a very scaled back AWP in terms of merchandise I left with when the conference wrapped up. I thought it was very interesting getting to see how other schools operate and run their magazines, and I even saw some things that I would love to see implemented in our magazines here on campus.
The conference started Thursday evening with a welcome reception at the Downtown Center right on Market Street. This was a way to introduce ourselves to the schools participating and allow for individuals to mingle and get to know one another.
Friday was the first full day with panels and roundtables. The first panel of the day was held by SUNY Geneseo on how to build a time capsule out of a literary magazine, followed by a roundtable on censorship that I spoke on. We eventually broke for lunch, and when we came back, I moderated a roundtable discussion on what it takes to run and have an online book presence. Our final panel of the day was presented by Penn State on how to advertise your magazine and retain staff members. Friday was capped off by the Susquehanna University Press launch party for their two new books that were recently released.
Saturday was another busy day with three different panels by Shippensburg University, Cedar Crest College, and the University of North Dakota, followed by the student publication showcase where people also had the opportunity to create fun and cool bookmarks!
I was really happy that the conference went well and it was very rewarding to see all of the hard work produced by myself and my fellow intern come to fruition. If you want to be in the loop about next year’s conference, follow FUSE: Society for Student Editors on Instagram @fusenational!