When I came to UW-Eau Claire four years ago, I never thought I’d be writing for the student newspaper. Since I came to college in pursuit of a degree in biochemistry, I didn’t think working at The Spectator was even an option.

As a freshman bachelor of science, I didn’t even pay much attention to the student newspaper. Sure, I’d pick it up on Mondays and Thursdays to eagerly see what antics made the Police Blotter, but other than the headlines, I read little of The Spectator’s content.

After changing my major sophomore year to print journalism, a journalism professor advised me to start writing for the university’s paper. I didn’t take him very seriously at first, but soon realized what benefits working in a newspaper setting prior to graduation would afford me later on.

I’ve always paid attention to the news, and as a double major in political science, I instantly felt at home in my new fields of study. However, as with many students at a liberal arts college who take GEs, I also became interested in other departments at the university.

That is one thing I think we at The Spectator could do a better job of. We have students at this university from dozens of majors that can each bring a very distinct and informative element to their student press. Yet, it seems many fields of study remain under-represented on the pages of The Spectator.

A nursing major would know better than I about how the latest medicare bill will affect the elderly in our country. Likewise, a theology major could add insight into the religious service debate.

So, this is a call to all students to help out the rest of us, and give us insight into issues we otherwise may not pay attention to. If there is an issue that you think hasn’t received the attention it should, write a column. If a story in the previous issue made you angry or confused, write a letter to the editor. It is the right of all students to be able to voice their opinions in their college paper, since part of your tuition dollars fund what we produce.

Also, as we are working in an academic setting, our newspaper has the ability to find experts on most topics studied by American academia. We greatly appreciate those faculty members and administrators that take the time out of their busy schedules to answer our questions and interact with the student body through the student press.

A lot of work goes into putting out two publications each week, yet all of us at The Spectator are critical of our final product. We cringe when we see the main graphic is missing from the Showcase section, or the type is messed up in the Classifieds, as what happened in the last issue. But it’s the more subtle criticism that may go under the radar in the office, and it’s your duty as informed consumers of the news to help point those out to us.

The students who work at The Spectator are just like any others on campus. We do this as a learning experience, and if you don’t bring mistakes to our attention, we won’t learn. Look at The New York Times and how many corrections it runs every day. News sources should be willing to own up to their mistakes, but it’s only possible if they’re brought to the attention of the editors.

It gets frustrating to hear peers criticizing your work in class without bringing it to your attention directly. By the same token, when professors refuse to speak to The Spectator for reasons beyond our control, it portrays them in a bad light.

As students, we pay our professors’ salaries. I don’t dispute they deserve our respect as they’re a heck of a lot smarter than we are. However, professors should also realize when we print our editorial guide at the bottom left-hand side of this page, which states that we reserve the right to edit letters to the editor over 300 words, the rules apply to them too.

Taking all this into consideration, The Spectator will strive to be more student- and faculty-friendly this semester than in past semesters. We will be hosting a booth in Davies Center by the information desk today, so please stop by and let us know what you think.

Would you like to see more “Questions of the Week,” or have you seen something in another student newspaper that you like? Let us know. Also, anybody, regardless of major, who would like to write either as a columnist or a reporter can sign up on our freelancer list.

In addition, The Spectator is looking into administering a readership survey to the student body that will further allow us to improve and reflect the general interests of the Eau Claire populace.

The Spectator exists only as long as we have readers that can respect what we do. So please, stop by and let us know what we’re doing right, what you’d like us to improve on and how to help us serve you, our consumers, more effectively.

Pelleymounter is a senior print journalism and political science major and editorial editor of The Spectator.