Contrary to popular belief, the newspaper medium is not dead. If it were, you would not be holding this in your hands. These pages are alive and well with valuable information that you can benefit from, and we are happy that you are reading it.

(If you are reading this online, just ignore that first paragraph.)

The Oklahoma Daily is an institution at OU. We are the official student news source of the university, but not attached to it. We are the independent voice, meaning that we are the ones who control our content, not the university. Which is a good thing, otherwise we would be writing about how awesome it is that the tuition is going up, and you would read an article each week about our National Merit Scholars per capita.

In short: We are here to serve the students. We strive to be a great source of news with smartly written content and entertaining stories. However, we have to recognize that we sometimes do not live up to our own expectations. Like every organization, we have had ups and downs. But thank goodness we aren’t the Chicago Cubs. We can learn from our mistakes and improve. We will work our hardest to give you well written and timely content. And we also vow to use spell check more often.

But enough of that serious stuff, let’s talk opinion.

This opinion page is where, in each edition, we present our view, which is what you are currently reading. The editorial staff, consisting of all The Daily’s editors, come together and discuss what should be the editorial opinion of the day, known as “Our View.” These opinions do not come lightly (or without some yelling), but we feel it is important to discuss what is going on around us, be it university related, United States related or world related, and present our views on a significant topic.

From there, the opinion page is filled with articles written by, well, you. Anyone can write for the opinion page, and we very much encourage you to come in and fill out an application to write for us. We welcome all views on all topics from students of all backgrounds and majors.

We want a variety of voices and views, but please, be smart about it. Use facts to back up your argument. You can’t say President Barack Obama is the savior of the world without producing something to back that up, just like you cannot say he is a secret commie-socialist without something concrete to support that statement.

And of course, if you disagree with an opinion column you read in the paper, we encourage you to write a letter to the editor or post a reply online telling us why. We try to print these letters regularly and often put them online no matter what.

The opinion page is also home to political cartoons. In the past, we have had a variety of cartoons, from well-drawn to poorly-drawn animals that are suppose to be llamas, but really look nothing like llamas. If you want to draw a comic, please do and present your idea to the opinion editor. We are always looking for art to put on the page.

We want to encourage an open forum for smart, intellectual dialog between students. We are not always going to agree, which is great. Use this page to spur dialog between you and your friends. And if you feel like contributing your voice to the page, please do.