Dear Alumni

Dear Alumni,

Reading your submissions on a speedy Mac computer, "Googling" names to double-check spellings, taking breaks from time-to-time for some video-game relief, and digitally scanning the archives to capture moments from the past six decades has, admittedly, left us feeling guilty.

Electric typewriters? Medical research at the library and not on WebMD? First-time airplane rides? Sifting through administrative files undetected? Really? Not only have you all made us feel guilty, but young, too!

More so, however, reading your submissions left the current Spectrum staff feeling proud. One editor shared, "it's great to hear my own views about working for The Spectrum voiced by someone who did it almost a decade ago," another added, "some things don't change with time," and a third – known and loved for his humor – wrote "it would be rather sadistic of me to hope for another major water contamination or nuclear plant meltdown, but it would be nice if we had the opportunity to cover stories like [our alumni]."

Your acknowledgments of the invaluable lessons learned outside and around the various Spectrum offices remind us not only how important our jobs are, but how useful the skills we're developing will prove. Your words have been an inspiration to us all, and we're proud to be carrying on your legacies.

Looking back through the archives, the layout of the newspaper has changed drastically over the years; we've actually made a big change ourselves, as the difference between the looks of this semester and last semester is significant. We can see, though, that no matter what the paper looked like, it was always full of important, informative, and entertaining articles, and it always represented the voice of the students. We can only hope that though we've changed the appearance of the paper yet again, we will never change that.

Sincerely yours,

The Spectrum staff