After spending the summer away from Pullman, the golden hills rolled me back to old haunts and familiar faces. It’s good to be back.

But there’s no time to sit around sentimentally watching wheat grow, because this fall is all about newness. WSU’s new president, Elson S. Floyd, hasn’t wasted time in appointing new administrators and reorganizing departments. Construction on the CUB, Southside Dining Center and golf course has moved far beyond pushing dirt, while a few new businesses have sprouted up in both Pullman and Moscow. The campus is sporting new tennis courts, a few of our sports teams have new coaches, Tony Bennett has a new contract, and all the teams have a blank record to start the season. And, as always, we have a whole new class of freshmen with a unique collage of goals and unbridled dreams unlike any class ever before them. Along with covering these stories and others that may develop, we at the Evergreen got into the spirit of newness with a few changes of our own.

n The most apparent change to our old readers is probably the paper’s new look. We tweaked our inside pages to make them more streamlined and approachable, and the front page teasers are now at the top to make it easier to find stories that interest you. The index bar at the bottom of the front page means you won’t have to rustle through the paper during class to find Sudoku or the crossword puzzle. We also revived a more traditional nameplate for the front page to represent our appreciation of the Evergreen’s long legacy as the student newspaper of WSU.

n On our website, we’ll be adding to our existing blogs and posting entries more frequently, so keep checking back as we get those up and running. We’ll also continue to post videos and audio to accompany our print stories, along with news updates during the day. If you see something happening on campus and wonder what’s going on, check our website. If we don’t have the story, give us a call and we’ll do our best to find out.

n MiX, the entertainment publication started last year, will come out on Thursdays now (after this first issue) so you have more time to plan your weekend.

n For all those armchair editors and sticklers for grammar out there, we’ll be soliciting edited copies of our paper. Contact me if you’re interested in signing up for a day.

Of course, like the campus, there is plenty about the Evergreen that hasn’t changed at all. We’re still committed to quality coverage of life on the Palouse, from the Board of Regents to football weekends and local music. The newsroom door is always open to students who want to work for us and anyone with ideas or concerns. We continue to be interested in your opinions both about the paper, the issues we cover and the stories you think we should be covering.

******************* BREAKOUT INFO:

Want to work for the Evergreen? Do you have a question or concern?

Contact Editor-in-chief Lisa Waananen at 335-3194 or editor@dailyevergreen.com.

Have a news tip or story idea?

Contact News editor Christina Watts at 335-2465 or news@dailyevergreen.com.