On behalf of our staff, welcome to the pages of the Fall 2003 Badger Herald! After a summer of relative calm, our staff has returned and eagerly anticipates bringing to you the news, views, images and storylines that affect your lives as students at this university. From downtown bars to an ever-changing campus environment, from nightlife on State Street to academics on Bascom Hill, from Picnic Point to the Capitol steps, we’ll do our very best to bridge the gap between public issues and private action. If it happens in and around campus, we want to know about it and present it to you as promptly and accurately as possible.

As has been the tradition of the Herald, we welcome, invite, even go so far as to anticipate reader reaction to our newspaper. This organization, free from university entanglement, is produced entirely by students and especially for students. If you don’t feel compelled to respond or take action based on something you’ve read at least once during the semester, we aren’t doing our jobs. So send us your thoughts (to [email protected]) as often as you would like, especially if you have story ideas we may have missed. All of our stories, images and pages are crafted with you in mind. Please join us in our unending quest to remain the paper of record for this campus community and raise the standard in college journalism.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Sincerely,

Eric B. Cullen

Editor in Chief