I sometimes marvel that our founders sat down and started The Badger Herald from nothing. Something big happens in this office every day, and the fall 2011 staff is lucky to know the lessons learned during the first 41 years of production.

There is room for more lessons yet. This fall will see the transformation of our website, social media use and multimedia presence, plus further tinkering with the design and content of our paper. As we continue experimenting with what it means to be a student newspaper, we will stumble at times. But there will also be instances of innovation.

This will not change that, at our heart, we are here to inform students and train future journalists. We remain the premiere source for coverage relevant to the University of Wisconsin.

This will be especially important this fall as we provide context for battles playing out at Bascom Hall, the Board of Regents and the Capitol. With budget cuts, a new chancellor, turmoil in the Legislature and state and national elections on the horizon, the time for the media to flourish is now.

The Herald is ready, but can do even better. We need bright new staff members to write for our news, opinion, sports and arts pages, plus videographers, photographers, bloggers and web editors. If you are interested in getting involved, attend one of our open house meetings on September 11 at 3:30 p.m. or September 13 at 5:30 p.m. Our office is located at 326 West Gorham St. above Silver Mine Subs and Madhatters. You can also look for our table at the student org fair September 14 or shoot me a personal email.

Thanks for reading. On Wisconsin.

Signe Brewster

Signe Brewster ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in life sciences communication.