On Tuesday, members of the Huntington News editorial board sat down with university President Joseph E. Aoun for a 45-minute interview. The conversation covered topics ranging from the price of tuition to ways to end the men’s hockey Beanpot drought. The interview was cordial and yielded productive discussion of the state of the university (turn to the front of the paper to read the Q&A) The interview went well, but there was a time when an interview with President Aoun seemed like an impossibility.

At one point, it was traditional for The News to sit down with Aoun at the end of each academic calendar to discuss the major issues of the year. In the spring, The News requested – and was denied – an interview with the president for the second straight year. The News wrote at least two editorials critical of Aoun and the university for denying us an interview.

Admittedly, the president has not been too fond of The News in the past. In 2008, during one of his first sit-downs with the paper’s editorial board about campus affairs, he avoided almost every question and instead diverted back to his talking points, leading us to publish the transcript of the interview and making the president’s tactical and dodgy responses public. He wasn’t thrilled. In our 2010 article, we made several minor transcription errors. Two errors laid outside the realm of non-altering sentence structure errors:  the use of “entrenchment” instead of “retrenchment” and a misspelling of the word “felt.” Until earlier this semester, Aoun had not spoken with a member of The News for an interview since 2010.

This semester, the university has allowed The News far greater access to the president. The News’ editor-in-chief met one-on-one with Aoun and he was made available for a phone interview after the announcement of a $60 million donation to the school of business. While the current level of access may not be the same as presidents past (Richard Freeland, apparently, gave News reporters his personal phone number), it is a step in the right direction.

The News hopes that a continued spirit of professionalism and respect (on both ends) will foster greater access and cooperation. The events of this semester are encouraging and should be recognized as such.