After eating some pizza, drinking some soda or green tea and friendly conversation, the very first BeanSwitch meeting was well under way to discuss the changes that will be well under way for the literary and arts magazine supplemented by student submissions.

Mattie Davenport, the executive editor and a junior secondary education major, along with Mark Shelton, the designer and art editor as well as a senior graphic design major, have used their editorial powers to make some changes to the usual publication methods in order to appeal to more students and have the best intentions of the submissions and readers in mind. The biggest change students can expect for the fall BeanSwitch issue is that it will be an online edition.

The costs of printing in color along with the poor reproduction quality of students’ artwork are the main reasons for this updated BeanSwitch format. This major format change was needed in order to broaden the audience of readers, modernize the issue to compete with many other literary works as well as appeal to any student interested in being a published artist, according to Dr. Leslie LaChance, the faculty advisor for BeanSwitch.

“Color printing is extremely expensive and that’s why BeanSwitch has always been in black and white. I would hope that the online edition would have very good art because the print edition only has four color pages. The artist would have a better chance to have their work in color and it will be good for submissions because it is easily accessible,” said Davenport.

This issue will not be the only one that will be going to an online format. Davenport hopes that the old editions will eventually be available online for readers. It is the job of Shelton to redesign the Web site as well as placing these issues online.

Students will be able to submit all of their original works via e-mail, which is preferred by the staff, or with the traditional paper submissions to accompany a CD with the works saved on it. The submission deadline will be Friday, October 13 at midnight and all students who are interested are encouraged to submit their works or become a part of the BeanSwitch team.

“The online issue is mainly to get people to stay involved and to say ‘Hey, this is good’ and look forward to the print version. It is three things: a way for us to get more color pieces out, to get more submissions and still save money by making only one print edition available in the Spring,” said Shelton.

To continue on with the usual BeanSwitch publication festivities, an art show and poetry reading is scheduled for October 9. The room has not yet been secured but it is believed to be in the “Black Room” on the second floor in the Fine Arts Building. Artists will be displaying their art work, which is a benefit to the artist because “they can display their art and pictures are being taken of it to help it serve as a submission as well as an art display,” according to Shelton.

The next BeanSwitch meeting will be Thursday, September 15 at 5:15 p.m. in the Writing Center. The purpose of this meeting will be the design of the BeanPods, which are “neat and lots of fun to make,” according to Dr. LaChance. Anyone with spare magazines or an interest in making these collage-type fliers to advertise the publication are encouraged to attend. If making collages aren’t your style, you can still come out and help post the fliers around campus in areas most appealing to students. Either way, food will be provided to all students who participate.