Welcome back. You know, sometimes we wonder why we have introductory letters at the beginning of every semester. We usually justify their continuation as keeping a tradition, and we Opinion editors joke that we have them mostly in order to satisfy our massive egos (at least we think we�re joking).

But this semester is decidedly different. At the beginning of this new year we want to communicate a very clear and important message to anyone who is willing to listen: Your input and your involvement are vital to this community, and we want you to join us in engaging the issues that are important to you.

In the coming semester, University of Wisconsin students will have the potential to shape and influence a number of consequential events. With the announcement of Chancellor Wiley�s pending departure, students, faculty and administrators will begin the difficult task of searching and recruiting candidates for the next leader of our university. He or she will have a profound influence on the future of UW and the future of our collective educations; we hope you will use this page as a forum to express your desires and concerns during the selection process.

This country is also in the process of nominating and electing its next president, and with the Wisconsin primaries having the potential to greatly affect the race, we hope you will find this page both a resource and an outlet for discussing the merits of the candidates.

In addition, The Badger Herald will be hosting a debate between the College Republicans and College Democrats in order to shed light on some of the viewpoints that most directly affect state and national issues of importance during this election year. The debate is Monday, Feb. 11 in the Great Hall of Memorial Union.

The questions asked of the debaters will address these 10 issues: The Iraq war, health care for Wisconsin, national energy/environmental policy, state taxes/economy, UW budgetary funding, foreign policy, the Wisconsin Marriage Protection Amendment, Wisconsin public school funding, immigration and abortion. Of the 10 or so questions asked, two will be student-submitted questions, which should be sent to [email protected] before Feb. 8.

There will also be elections in April to decide, among other things, the next Dane County supervisor for District 5 � a district heavily populated by students. On page 5, outgoing District 5 supervisor Ashok Kumar and District 5 candidates Wyndham Manning and Conor O�Hagan discuss the past and future of the position in question. We expect their editorials to serve as a launching pad for further inquiry into their plans for the position.

And of course, we will keep this page entirely open and entirely yours this semester. We invite you to submit letters to the editor, to contact us if you are interested in writing for the page and to visit the Herald editorial blog, �Muckrakers.� 

Finally, we are very excited to announce that we will be launching a series of online video episodes that will address issues and people of importance to UW students. These episodes will be released on our website, with the aim of educating students and encouraging activism in local politics. Look for more updates on the Opinion page in the coming weeks.

Buckle up. It�s going to be a great semester.