By Rosemary Peters
Bienvenidos. Willkommen. Aloha. Welcome.
Welcome to the University.
Welcome to The Beacon.
Freshmen, we're excited to meet you. Everyone else, we're excited to have you back.
For those of you who are new to the University or for those of you who just need a friendly reminder, The Beacon is the University of Portland's campus newspaper.
But really, we're much more than just words on overly large paper. The Beacon's purpose is to be a pen, paper and photographic representation of you: the students. We are a student-run and student-organized newspaper, and we answer to you.
Do you have a strong opinion about something happening on campus? Use the Opinions section as a springboard to spread your message. Did you snap an awesome photo at an event or while strolling around campus? Email it to beacon@up.edu. Have a story idea? Walk in to our office in St. Mary's Student Center and talk to us about it or shoot us an email.
This week during The Beacon Boot Camp (our crash course in journalism for Beacon staffers) we talked about how The Beacon was on the edge of glory (thanks, Lady Gaga). During this upcoming year, we plan on taking it over the edge and being a truly fantastic publication. The Beacon plans on meeting this goal by maintaining two seemingly contradictory things: change and consistency.
Change. Without change, The Beacon wouldn't grow. Some of the changes we have planned are small – a weekly Sudoku (finally), slightly revamped templates and more in-depth training are small facets of slight changes we're making to The Beacon. On the other hand, big changes will come in the form of multimedia. We plan to beef up our website, include more video specials and really shine on Twitter, Facebook and other web-based social networking sites.
Consistency. We promise to stay consistent by reporting the news in a professional and responsible way. We will double-check every fact and triple-check the spelling of names (especially yours, Paul Myers). Sometimes things may still fall through the cracks, but when they do, we will correct it. The Beacon is the paper of record for this campus, and we want to keep this record spotless.
We will consistently make sure The Beacons that appear every Thursday in the news racks are full of the most hard-hitting news, fascinating features, titillating sports stories and tantalizing photos. We invite you every Thursday to pick up one of these Beacons and to dive a little deeper into and become a little more connected to the UP community.
Remember, The Beacon wants to inform and entertain you. The Beacon wants to advocate for and represent you. In order for this newspaper to meet its purpose, we need to hear from YOU.
It's the freakin' Beacon baby and we're about to have us some fun!
(Kevin Kadooka -- The Beacon)
