Congratulations on making two very wise decisions. You have elected to attend one of the world’s greatest universities and you have begun reading one of the nation’s best student newspapers.

That type of ego-inflating rhetoric is common at any university or at any student newspaper. But you will soon find out that Madison is full of superlatives – from the city’s natural beauty to the unparalleled level of thinking and research that happens here on a regular basis – that support those claims. At The Badger Herald, our mission is to help you make sense of what happens in the campus community on a daily basis, and we don’t pull any punches when doing so.

Many student newspapers across the country publish their content at the discretion of the university’s administration or a faculty adviser who plays the role of grown-up. But at the Herald, we are the grown-ups. The entire company of dozens of employees is student-run, and the content of our newspaper reflects the spirit of independence we have held dearly since our humble foundations in 1969.

We regularly run news or opinion pieces that are critical of the university or the city’s government. We send reporters to the Capitol to provide a student-based angle of Wisconsin’s legislative chaos. We run a weekly sex column that understands the sex lives of undergraduates. We give our readers a voice with an open opinion page and weekly “shoutouts” that describe the intricacies of campus life. And we have one of the best sports sections in the state that covers collegiate sports, with reporters and editors with direct access to players and coaches.

You will soon discover that the Herald is an important part of the daily life of University of Wisconsin students, and we could not be more excited to provide you with a preview of what makes our publication and the university we attend so special before your arrival on campus.

For those interested in getting involved with the Herald, please feel free to come to one of our new writers’ meetings near the beginning of the academic year. Everyone, from an engineering major to a prospective journalism major, should feel free to join our staff. If you’re worried about prior experience, fear not. Just three years ago, I walked into the Herald office without any prior experience, and now I’m in love with journalism and I practically live at our office.

For the majority who will not write for us, we are excited for what the next four years will bring to the university and even more excited to chronicle them for you every weekday.

On Wisconsin!

Ryan Rainey ([email protected]) is the editor-in-chief of The Badger Herald and a senior majoring in journalism and Latin American studies.