Revamping Under the Arch has been on our minds since the beginning of this academic year. We wanted to take on new projects, like putting out a mini special issue we’ve never done before. So, here we are.

Valentine’s Day, in its essence, is an occasion to embrace, celebrate and share love, whether you’re spending it with that special someone or celebrating on your own. Rather than cynically critiquing the flower displays and oversized teddy bears, we decided to embrace the light-hearted fun this holiday brings in the midst of a dreary winter. This issue features stories about love from across the Mediterranean at NYU’s campuses abroad to right here in New York from editors in our newsroom.

We wanted our readers to be as involved as we were for this issue, so we gathered their opinions about the whimsical attributes of Valentine’s Day. And we wanted our own UTA staff to share their stories too, which we did in the form of dating app mishaps and other awkward romantic endeavors.

Everyone came together so spectacularly for this issue — our contributing writer Mellak Abduelal, our Identity & Equity Editor Mayee Yeh and our Editor-in-Chief Alex Tey, as well as all of our spectacular Under the Arch editors. Special shout out to our new editors — Aleksandra Goldberg, Jules Roscoe and Sunny Sequeira — for their excellent work on their very first special issue.

As usual, our Creative Directors — Susan Behrends Valenzuela and Charitssa Stone — and their team of illustrators created beautiful artwork that you’ll see throughout the issue. And as usual, we can’t thank them enough.

We also want to give a special shoutout to our web director Ryan Kawahara and web team Jane He, Adelaide Miller and Megan Kim for their amazing work on the web layout.

If you’ve taken a close look at the front cover of this issue, you’re probably wondering: is love dead? We certainly won’t answer that question for you, but we hope this issue helps you reach your own conclusion.

Students at NYU’s Florence campus share their stories of dating while studying away.

We asked NYU students for their thoughts on all things Valentine’s Day, from flower preferences to public displays of affection. Here are their answers.

Real love isn’t like the ❤️ emoji.

Tinder hookups and sexting scandals: our staff share their strangest and cringiest stories of dating in the modern age

Getting in a relationship wasn’t on my 2021 bingo card, but here we are.