Welcome back to the University of Wisconsin and thanks for picking up a copy of The Badger Herald.

The majority of our staff has been back in town for at least two weeks, and we've spent many late nights since then assembling the newspaper you now hold in your hands. We are quite satisfied with this inaugural issue, always one of the highlights of the semester for us.

I hope you take some time to read it through. I'm sure you'll find something that piques your interest — from the Dumpster diving exposé on 20A to Herald Sports' Big Ten football preview on 10C.

Always looking to improve our product, I'm excited to announce a few new features in store for The Badger Herald this year. Although we've won the Associated Collegiate Press' National Online Pacemaker Award two years running, we're not content to rest on our laurels. Keep an eye on badgerherald.com this semester for breaking news updates around the clock, the new Herald blog and photo slideshows from some of the more visually pleasing events we cover. Our photographers do great work — from covering football and basketball games across the country to battling pepper spray on State Street at Halloween — and in the past, some great images have been left on the cutting room floor.

We've expanded our web department to help us with these changes, and together with an expanded ArtsEtc. staff, they've been busy this summer laying the groundwork for a major expansion of The Badger Herald Bar and Dining Guide, set to launch on the website in September.

Through it all, we'll continue to provide the same quality of reporting and analysis that you have come to expect, and that has made us the University of Wisconsin's newspaper of record.

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck this semester. I hope you'll continue to make us a part of it.

Mike Gendall

Editor in Chief