| Y2Que?
The final strands of confetti have long since been swept away, the hoopla has dissipated, and, to the delight of thousands of programmers everywhere, the vast majority of computers answered the beck and peck of their owners on Jan. 1. Billions of dollars were poured into the massive effort to defeat the Y2K bug. Evidently, the bug was squished. There were many of us who expected a chaotic first day of the year, complete with crumbling buildings, madmen waving pistols and picking off innocent bystanders, automated teller machines senselessly dispensing cash onto the streets ... you get the idea. But no such thing happened. Apparently, either the worst of human nature has yet to manifest itself into the mass upheaval that was expected, or there are more good people among us than previously thought. It would be very easy for us to look at the shootings at Columbine and Wedgwood Baptist Church, the Jasper dragging death trials, the first-degree murder conviction of a 13-year-old in Michigan, the daily stories of horror that make up the bulk of our television broadcasts and newspapers and assume human virtue died long ago. But every time we focus on the failings of the collective human spirit, something happens that renews our faith in one another. We don't have to make our time on Earth more miserable than already possible. There is enough disease, depression and death to go around. Irreconcilable differences concerning race, religion and politics just complicate matters. It is within us all to make life a little better for everyone. The fact that everyone was so negative and frightened about the turn of the millennium says little about our previous efforts to assist one another. Can we correct our wrongs this year, century and millennium? We can start by thinking we can.
Changes welcome readers The way in which you read the TCU Daily Skiff may change this semester. After weeks of planning, the editors of the Skiff are prepared to bring you a cleaner, more concise paper. We are implementing various changes to make reading the Skiff more pleasurable and more informative. First, I'll start with the things that have remained the same. We will continue to cover the campus as accurately and as fairly as possible on our news pages. We will encourage our reporters to find all possible angles for stories and to strive for the truth. We will also present more info boxes on our front page to give you a quick glance into some of our stories. For those of you on a busy schedule, this will make it much easier to read the Skiff while on your way to class. Last semester, we were able to pull together as a team to cover various breaking news events that occurred both on and off campus. From the Wedgwood shooting to the announcement of the university's invitation to Conference USA, we learned much about our ability to come together. It is my hope that we continue that team work into this semester. We will continue to take risks when it comes to covering campus news (even if it means not getting any sleep the night of production, which is what happened more times than not last semester). Our opinion page presented various issues of concern to college students both on a national level and on a local level, as well. Our opinion editors are dedicated to allowing anyone's voice to be heard (as long as it's in good taste, of course) and encourage students to give their side of an issue. The sports section continually saw two pages of coverage last semester. We hope to continue that into this semester, with coverage of basketball, baseball, tennis, rifle team, track and field and various other spring sports. We also hope to keep you updated on any news from Conference USA and the progress of the various athletic complexes that will soon see completion. Our attempt last semester to improve the Skiff will continue into this semester. The best road to success is one step at a time. Our first step will be introducing an advice column on the Etc. page. We hope this will add some enjoyable reading to the Skiff. As college students, we understand that after a hard exam or a long day of lectures, sometimes it's nice to hear other people's problems instead of worrying about your own. Also this semester, you will see the introduction of the Features section. One page every day will be dedicated to a wide variety of topics. We hope to present ideas in a short, reader-friendly way, with more graphics, shorter stories and tons of information that will be easy and quick to read. The page will rotate every week according to a specific schedule. Some of the areas we will cover include life, health, food, technology, travel, home, issues, perspectives and arts and entertainment. It will run on the inside of our paper, and I encourage you to take a look at it. If you have any ideas on what specific topics we should cover, feel free to drop us a line. There are new and exciting things happening this semester that we hope to cover throughout the paper. The renovation of Foster Hall, the continual efforts of the Commission on the Future of TCU, the wave of Internet courses, the TCUglobalcenter, which will see student activity this semester, and the selection of four new deans will all see heavy coverage. The old, together with the new, will combine to produce what we hope will be a better Skiff. Who knows? With all these changes, we may take it one step further and really change the way you read the Skiff by printing it entirely in Spanish. OK maybe not.
Editor in Chief Joaquin Herrera is a senior journalism and Latin American studies major from Corpus Christi. He can be reached at (jlherrera@delta.is.tcu.edu).
Improvements should appeal to campus We're baaaack. It's that time again ... time for another four months of tests and parties (because there are so many good parties on this campus) and, yes, another semester of the Skiff. Barely recovered from our New Year's hangovers, the editors returned to Fort Worth on Jan. 6 to carry out our sentence: confinement to Moudy Building South for one semester, no possibility of parole. But we like this sentence. If we didn't want to be here every night putting a paper together for the TCU community, believe me, we would not be here. But we are here, and we intend to produce high-quality papers throughout the semester. You'll be seeing some changes on the opinion page this semester. The biggest change for the opinion page is the return of Joel Anderson, my new partner in opinion editing, to the Skiff editorial board. Joel and I will work together to bring you a wider range of ideas and new sections to our page. We're adding a "Thanks and Spanks" section once a week. Write to us to tell us the good things and the bad things you've seen happen around campus. We also plan to bring back the "Students Speak Out" section. You can read the first edition on the bottom of today's opinion page. We've included an advice column on the Etc. page of the paper. You can read Carolyn Hax's "Tell Me About It" and "Help Me Harlan!" twice a week each. We've made these changes based on your feedback, but we always look for more information. We encourage you to let us know what you want out of your campus newspaper. Write to us at TCU Box 298050. E-mail us at (skiffletters@tcu.edu). Call us at 257-7428. Fax us at 257-7133. You can even stop by the newsroom in room 291S of the Moudy Building. Tell us where you want to see improvement and what changes you would like to see in our coverage. The sooner you reach us, the better we'll be able to reach you. Here's to another great semester.
Opinion Editor Laura Head is a junior news-editorial journalism major from Shreveport, La. She can be reached at (lahead@delta.is.tcu.edu). Students Speak Out What changes do you want to see on the TCU campus in the coming year?
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