Dorothy Lakshmanamurthy, a sophomore journalism major, will serve as editor-in-chief of The Butler Collegian for the 2026-27 academic year.
Following her tenure at The Collegian as a sports reporter, assistant sports editor and most recently as sports co-editor, Lakshmanamurthy will lead the newspaper’s operations and staff through weekly publication and campus coverage.
Even before her first year at Butler, Lakshmanamurthy saw the position of editor-in-chief at a college publication as a goal of hers to attain. Now elected, that dream has been realized.
“This is what I want to do,” Lakshmanamurthy said. “I even told my high school advisor [that] before I graduate, I’m going to go for [the] editor-in-chief [position] in whatever university I’m going to.”
Lakshmanamurthy ran for editor-in-chief on a platform which contained five main pillars: strengthening campus coverage, making coverage more accessible and engaging, encouraging coverage on accountability, building a more collaborative team and establishing more clarity within staff processes. Her main passion resides in making sure the physical newspaper is an appealing product for the Butler community to admire.
“I want people to want to pick up the newspaper,” Lakshmanamurthy said. “Whether that’s heightening the design [and] having the design section be more like [an] established group coming in on Monday nights and being more a part of the process than just Tuesday nights, [or] building a social media section of the newspaper to promote the paper more and even have stories strictly on there.”
In addition to her work on The Collegian, Lakshmanamurthy served as a staff reporter and later deadline manager at Munster High School’s student newspaper, writing and social media intern for Sportsish, news reporter intern for GreatNews.Life and game recap reporter for the North American Hockey League.
Lakshmanamurthy will be the 10th woman in 11 years to take on the mantle of editor-in-chief for The Butler Collegian. As she prepares to step into this new position, she looks forward to taking on a new role and growing the newspaper, building on the strides of prior years.
“I’m very excited and eager to take it on, but also to continue something that has so much history [and] also grow it even further,” Lakshmanamurthy said. “I hope my motivation shines through, but also I hope [the staff is] excited to show up every day … and have their work put on a pedestal to show the Butler campus that we’re here, we’re important and we’re The Butler Collegian.”