As the spring 2024 semester came to an end at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, so did the role of an important member of The Racquet Press. Easton Moberg (He/him) began as the student government reporter, later serving as the multimedia editor and then managing editor during his final semester at UWL.
Moberg came to UWL in the fall of 2021, which marks his gradation date a year ahead of the traditional undergraduate timeline. It took the dedication to complete classes every summer and winter to become a 2024 graduate. “Leaving a full year early is exciting, but I think its bittersweet because everyone that I was on this journey with is still here for one more year,” he said.
Moberg graduated Sunday with commencement honors in political science and a minor in communication studies with an emphasis interpersonal communication. “I know I have been working hard towards it. Being able to get out early and save a couple dollars is really amazing,” said Moberg.
If Moberg were to have stuck with his original plan when coming to UWL he would have graduated with a history degree. A Historiography class prompted him to change his mind.
“It made me realize I love history, I wouldn’t love a career in history,” he said.
He switched his major to political science and in that department discovered a professor that made an impression on him. “I had one professor that stood out to me a bit, Professor Alan Bigel,” Moberg said.
“I loved taking his classes and I think a lot of people would agree. He has this sort of cult following of people that take all of his Constitutional Law classes,” he said. Moberg identified Right to Life as his favorite of the Constitutional Law courses he took. The class focused on the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinions on capital punishment, abortion and mercy killing, as well as other issues affecting the constitutional right to life.
Aside from his academic career, Moberg was an active member in campus life. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, he was an eagle guide, a position where UWL students give campus tours and presentations to incoming first-year students.
Moberg served as a College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities senator in UWL’s Student Association for the 2023-2024 academic year. A cause that held particular significance for him was his involvement in the Wellness Weekend Task Force, a committee dedicated to reimplementing a wellness weekend on the academic calendar.
“Being able to be in that position and fight for students, even though it [establishing wellness weekend] didn’t turn out the greatest, it was really important to me and something I had the privilege of doing,” Moberg said.
Read Moberg’s work on Wellness Weekend and the task force here.
Moberg was the Racquet student government reporter for the 2023 spring semester. He pinpoints his greatest accomplishment in that role to his coverage of the UWL School of Education (SOE), during a time when SOE students weren’t happy with their program.
“At the end of the interviews students would say, ‘thank you for talking about this, thank you for bringing this to light.’ It was eye opening and hearing that and seeing how you can help people through journalism, I fell in love with it,” Moberg said.
The following year Moberg was promoted to the multimedia editor position, a position that allowed him to bring his visions for the publication to life. “I had so many ideas for what the Racquet could become,” he continued, “Me and the executive editor had the idea that we should be in print, so we went out and did that.”
Moberg also led the initiative to add a newsletter to the Racquet where people can sign up for UWL news to come straight to their email.
“It’s not just about publishing stories,” Moberg said. “It’s about growing student news as much as possible. News that isn’t being churned out from the university is very important. We can look at UWL in a positive light, but at times you need to get a student perspective to really understand what is going on.”
Just days before the end of 2023, during Moberg’s tenure as the multimedia editor, news broke that UWL’s chancellor at the time, Joe Gow, was terminated by the UW Board of Regents. Moberg covered those stories over winter break.
“As students at UWL we were at the front lines of this situation. We beat out a couple of news sources, some prominent ones at that,” said Moberg. “The Racquet provided a different perspective than other news sources because we knew him outside of the scandal.”
Outside of the Racquet, Moberg worked at a Boys and Girls Club in La Crosse for nearly two years as one of the program staff. “Being able to give the kids the same experience I had growing up in a Boys and Girls Club is what I love about that job,” he said.
Moberg is now looking towards the Boys and Girls Club of America as his potential post-graduation career path, while also keeping the option of a journalism career in mind. The current climate of journalism in the United States may hold him back from pursuing such an option.
“With ChatGPT and Ai, with local news dying at a rapid rate, not just journalism, any media job is really difficult right now. It’s extremely discouraging to get into,” Moberg said.
He continues to keep writing and journalism on his radar, recognizing it as something he finds enjoyable and a skill he has developed during his time at UWL.
As a tribute to his time as an eagle guide Moberg felt he would be remiss if not to give first-year students a piece of advice. “Get involved and I know people are going to be pushing that on you,” he continued. “But find a group of people you enjoy.”
Moberg explained that given the moderate size of UWL, students are granted more opportunities to make a difference. He said, “The biggest reasons I was pushed towards La Crosse was the ability to be an active member in the community not just a number.”
Read all of Moberg’s work at The Racquet Press here.
