Welcome back to campus. Or for some of you, welcome to ULM.

You’re a part of both an exciting and challenging time for our university. Consistent cuts to higher education by our state leaders have put higher education into a difficult position. As a result, all of us – from the administration, faculty and staff to students – are still trying to find our footing in a climate that seems to change by the day.

These are important issues. These are difficult and often complex issues. Facing them alone can be a daunting task. Luckily, you don’t have to do that.

In the coming weeks you’ll notice a series of articles that try to make sense of the changes rapidly taking place around us. Hopefully by the end of the series, all of us will have a better understanding of the struggles and challenges that each of us are facing at ULM.

The Hawkeye staff is dedicated to providing you with information you need to be an informed student at your university. We’ll be there every step of the way this semester to cover the good, the bad and everything in between. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be worth much as a newspaper.

This is your newspaper. My staff and I are merely its keepers. We encourage input and conversation from you. We want you to know that we are approachable, and we are eager to hear from you.

There are many ways you can weigh-in. Of course, each of the editors’ contact information is available on our website.  Should an event come up you want covered, please let us know. If we’ve dropped the ball in some way, we’d like to know that too so we can correct it in the future.

Also on our website are comment boards, where you and other readers can weigh-in on discussions and issues affecting our campus. I only ask that you keep it civil and on topic.

And you can find us on Facebook and Twitter (@ulmhawkeye).

Again, welcome back to campus. We’re looking forward to another great year at ULM.

Thanks for reading.

Cole Avery,

Editor-in-chief