Welcome back, Seattle University.

For those of you who are new readers, we are The Spectator—Seattle U’s campus newspaper since 1933—and we are writing for you.

The Spectator team is dedicated to informing, entertaining and actively interacting with the Seattle U community, especially its students. As an organization, our purpose is three-fold: we deliver news coverage on a weekly basis, we function as a learning tool and artistic outlet for students eager to gain experience in the field of journalism, and we aim to serve as a spirited community forum open to all.

Every week, we work to produce a well-conceived paper of high quality that reflects the artistic vision and craft of every member on its staff. We encourage our editors and writers to develop their own distinct tones and opinions, experiment with style and take chances with their writing. The Spectator is as much an artistic collaboration as it is a news source.

But you, dear reader, are our single most important contributor—the stories we seek to publish are stories gleaned from people like you.

Our vision for The Spectator is to create a dynamic public forum that accurately reflects the thoughts, concerns and personalities of Seattle U. Our content is inspired by the thoughts of students, our changes are fueled by feedback from our readers and the relevance of our paper relies entirely on community participation. If you feel you are not represented in our pages, speak up—we want to include everyone in our discussions and, in truth, we cannot succeed as a community paper when we fail to do so.

As we head into a new academic year, think of The Spectator as a tool within your capable hands. What you do with it is up to you.