Dear reader,

For starters, welcome back. It is an exciting time to be a part of our campus. And being involved is exactly what The Daily wants from its readers. This is a place where we are learning to be journalists, and you are learning to be readers and sources. I urge you to become active in your campus community, and its paper.

I would like to start the semester off by briefing you on the purpose and goal of our Opinion page. It's purpose is to provide an open forum for students, faculty, staff and the Norman community. The goal is to provide informed opinions on issues that relate to our campus community. Some views apply directly to students because they are written by students, but others apply to the campus as a whole.

Our View is an editorial piece supported by our Editorial Board which is made up of Daily staff members. This is a place for The Daily's student voice to speak out on a campus, local or national issue.

Staff columns are written by columnists selected by The Daily to represent a variety of student opinions. Columns are a place for writers to research and review a topic based on their opinions. This semester we are introducing a new shape for the page by giving our columnists more direction. Staff columnists will write for one of three categories: focus on OU, the big picture and college life.

Cartoonists David Miller, Andy Jacobs and Nathan Anderson are helping us bring back cartoons and illustrations.

We make a point to run as many letters to the editor as possible. We do, however, edit for style and space. Readers are encouraged to write letters. The box located along the bottom of the page is called the masthead. There we list the names of section editors and The Daily's policies on letters.

Our Web site (www.daily.ou.edu) is also undergoing some renovations but will be taking some new shape shortly. Each story on our site is accompanied by an accuracy check link. Please understand these checks are not the same as letters to the editor and will not be published. The purpose of the accuracy check is to provide a place for readers to inform us about mistakes, suggestions and compliments.

In today's paper we have also included a reprint of our Jan. 4 Orange Bowl issue because we know many of our readers were not on campus.

I welcome suggestions, questions and complaints. We want to serve our readers, so let us know what you want.
hello there & you too