First and foremost, welcome to campus, new students. Hopefully, the day brings you a nice introduction to what will be your home-away-from-home for the next four(ish) years.
As you acquaint yourselves with all the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has to offer, allow me to introduce you to another staple of university life: the very paper you're holding.
The Daily Nebraskan is UNL's independent student newspaper. It has acted as the student voice of the university for more than a century. We are students working to create a complete and informative product for you, the students.
Each section of the newspaper is tailored to bring students the most interesting and relevant stories to them and their lives here at the university.
For example, the news section brings stories about campus happenings, interesting professors and the UNL student government, as well as information about the Nebraska Legislature, research from across the country and any other news that might have an impact on you. While the DN strives to cover as many groups on campus as possible, there simply isn't the time or personnel to give a complete look at all of UNL's organizations. Thus, the news desk expanded within the last year and launched the Community Desk, which allows students and campus groups to submit their own news coverage for upcoming events to be posted on the Daily Nebraskan website.
The arts and entertainment section offers a complete look at all that's going on in the music, movie, art and literary worlds. If you're bored on a Friday or Saturday night, you haven't been reading the A&E section. The DN brings an abundance of coverage on upcoming concerts at the Bourbon Theatre, movies at the Ross Media Arts Center, shows at the Sheldon Museum of Art and performances at the Lied Center. In addition, the DN reviewers will tell you exactly what they thought, so you're not going in blind.
The opinion section offers a platform for the student and professor columnists to make their voices heard. These writers have been known to criticize, praise, analyze and discuss whatever is at the forefront of their minds. You may agree with their opinions or — more often than not — they'll probably piss you off. But that's the joy of the opinion section: Columnists are not only given the chance to express themselves but also to create a dialogue with the rest of campus. Whether you loved or hated something written, the opinion section always welcomes your feedback in the form of letters to the editor.
Finally, the sports section will bring you all the Husker coverage you could possibly stomach. Of course, there is significant coverage of football, basketball, volleyball and baseball, but the sports writers also offer regular stories on the bowling, gymnastics, tennis, golf and rifle teams. This is the most complete look at Nebraska sports you will get from any daily publication. And not only is the DN's sports coverage vast, but it's good (not to toot our own horn or anything). The newspaper recently won two Hearst awards for sports writing, which is one of the highest honors awarded to college journalists.
As you thumb through this issue, you'll notice it's not broken up into these sections — the paper takes a different format in the summer, especially for this New Student Enrollment issue. As we transition to the normal summer DN, you'll see these separate sections going to town in their own way and bringing you the best in student journalism.
We at the Daily Nebraskan are simply a group of students working to hone our craft and create the best newspaper we can for you. You may not love every story we publish, but there's a good chance you'll find one or two things of interest in each publication. And if nothing else, there's a crossword in each day's paper to distract you during class. So grab an issue and take a look.
opinion@dailynebraskan.com
is a member of the 
