Staff editorial 

Welcome newcomers and those who are returning to campus.

We wanted to prepare you: students are important to The Shield.

And you may be photographed or asked to give your input on a subject matter.

Don’t worry though – we don’t bite.

You’re holding The Shield newspaper, if you couldn’t tell by the red square on the front page. We’ve been preparing for almost the whole summer the 10 pages you hold. We have a new staff, and all our ideas are bleeding onto your fingers as we speak.

We are an independent, student-run publication, which means our adviser, faculty members or administration cannot censor or tell us what needs to be in The Shield.

All content is approved by us – the students. Seven editors are the ones who make the ultimate decision, but we ask our writers as well.

The Shield was named the No. 1 Division II newspaper in Indiana this past spring and won 28 awards at the Indiana Collegiate Press Association.

The whole point of us publishing an issue each Thursday is to inform you – the students of USI.

We want to know what you want to read. Our editor-in-chief loves to write profiles.

The news editor likes to write off-the-wall stories that seem unimportant at first, and then turns into a bigger story.

Features editor wants to write about music in her journalism career.

Sports editor’s favorite thing to write about is about NCAA-sanctioned sports. Our visual editor isn’t picky though. He just likes to design.

If you have an idea for any of those – send it our way.

We want to please you, but we know we won’t always be able to do that.

Everyone is welcome to write a letter-to-the-editor. Or send us story ideas.

We tend to say stories because that’s what we’re doing – giving someone a voice and telling their story.

We follow a code of ethics. Each decision we make, we look at that code.

They are: seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable.

Our goal is to never have mistakes in the paper. But we are students, and we’re learning every day. Please forgive us and let us know, so we can fix it however we can.

Please feel free to stop by our office in UC East 0227 to say hello.