Whether you have been on campus for only a few days or you are a seasoned UB veteran, by reading this you are now familiar with UB's undergraduate newspaper, The Spectrum.
Ten thousand copies of our paper are distributed around UB three times per week. In each issue we hope you will find something (or many things) that are of interest to you - whether it be a story about your student government, the profile of an interesting member of the UB community, or just reading the safety report to see which of your friends got busted this week.
Our role is threefold - to provide information the UB community needs or wants to know; to serve as a sounding board for UB students and faculty on important issues; and to train prospective journalists at UB.
The role we take the most serious is our responsibility to inform students about the things they need to know. Many students are woefully unaware of how this university works - they are not up to date on the daily decisions that affect them directly, and The Spectrum is here to close that knowledge gap.
For example, each undergraduate student turns over nearly $140 per year to the Student Association, and students deserve to know how that money is spent - before, during, and after decisions are made to spend it.
This year, The Spectrum will provide valuable oversight of this process and will let students know exactly how their money is being spent. We will ask questions on behalf of all students and publish the answers.
It's more important than ever this year that students know how their mandatory fee money is being spent. At some point before May, students will cast their votes in a referendum that will decide whether UB students will even pay a mandatory fee over the next four years, and how much that fee will be.
We also will be providing students with as much information as possible about the upcoming presidential election. With all that is at stake, no American citizen - especially not members of the college generation who will inherit the country - should be without an opinion. We want to give you as much information as possible to help you make a decision.
We will also be running a series of explanatory stories about the issues at stake in November - not just in the presidential election but several local races as well.
For those who already have strong opinions on this election, we encourage feedback from the community for our editorial page. We hope to have a lively dialogue on the page this year, and given the division in this country today, there's no reason this shouldn't happen.
This paper also serves as a useful tool at a university where one cannot receive a degree in journalism. Potential journalists can sign up for The Spectrum, receive three English credits and learn to write for a newspaper - while having their work published and put in front of the entire UB community.
So to any potential journalists reading this: feel free to stop into The Spectrum's offices in 132 Student Union this week. We'd love to have you. We also encourage students not interested in journalism as a career to join our publication. Everyone has something to bring to the table and can be an asset to our diverse newspaper.
To everyone else, I encourage you to read the paper as often as you can - I say this not just because I'm the editor but because I know we have something to offer. Our job is to put the information in front of you, and it's your job to educate yourself. The university will be better for it.
