Dear Reader,

Welcome to the Wire’s 29th Volume. It’s great to be back.

I, too, am personally back, after having spent an entire year abroad at the University of Oxford last year. Naturally, returning to Wheaton is a little strange — when I left, Ronald Crutcher was still our President, Gail Berson was our Dean of Admissions, Alex Vasquez was Dean of Advising, and Lee Williams was our Dean of Students.

But it’s a big year for Wheaton, which makes it a big year for us here at the Wire. A presidential innauguration. A new Dean of Students. Massive dining hall renovations slated to begin this winter. We at the Wire can’t wait to begin covering these exciting developments.

With that out of the way, a little bit about how I’ll use this space each week: this will be one of very few “personally styled” letters from the editor this year. I intend to use this space as much more than my personal soundbox or journal. I will aim with my letters each week to shed light, provoke discussion, and, perhaps once in a while, take a stand (as I’m known to do, you know, sometimes).

We’re doing a few things differently, too. We’ll be beefing up our photo section by taking more of our own and boosting accountability when it comes to outside photo credits. Perhaps most exciting, we’ll be hiring graphic designers this year. My hope is this will improve not only our design aesthetic, but also our textual content, by taking the layout load off of our wonderful section editors and enabling them to do what they do best: make the style and structure of their writers’ articles the best they can be at all times.

If you have something to say, about the Wire or perhaps in the Wire, please feel free to send them my way. We’re looking for all sorts of contributions — comments, compliments, criticism, questions — and can’t wait to hear from you.

Thanks for picking up the Wire’s first issue of the year. We hope you’ll keep coming back.

~ ABN