For a few years, I have continually added my opinions to this section of the Iowa State Daily. It has been interesting as well as a lot of fun, and I will say that the students that run the Daily are great people to work with even when they constantly receive a lot of ire from the student body for their work.

I’ve been able to write about tough technology topics as well as a bit of politics and local issues and I really hope that even if you don’t agree with my opinions that I at least taught you something you didn’t already know. That’s what school is all about – learning. In my years at Iowa State, I have found that some of the most highly sought after students are not those who can recite their subject textbooks cover to cover, but those who have developed talents that extend beyond their major. Business students would explain that it’s all about finding the right niche for your knowledge and talents.

I guess in some respects I’m lucky that I majored in engineering, so I might have had an easier time job-hunting than my friends at the Daily. But even in a tumultuous news industry, I think many of them will have good job prospects based on their excellent work at our campus newspaper. Overall, I hope that the job market will improve as the nation tries to cope with the real problems in the market that stem from our difficulties in coping with technology growth that is evolving the job market faster than our workforce can respond.

While some may scorn me for this, I am pleased to see the various protest and revolutionary movements taking place around the world. In my eyes, they show that our generation – long discounted for being the generation of apathy – has simply been misjudged. We want change, maybe more so than our parents before us, and we’re willing to work to make it happen.

A few weeks ago, I was disappointed to see freshmen congressmen being stomped on by their older peers during the SOPA debates in the House, but at least they are there in Congress. It’s awesome that we have young people trying to make change on multiple fronts after deciding they couldn’t count on ancient senators such as John McCain to do it for us (especially when he doesn’t even know how to use the Internet, our communication medium).

I urge the students of Iowa State to keep studying, keep being involved in meaningful groups and events and to keep reading and writing for (or to) the Daily. Changes in the news industry and the economy are forcing the Daily to have shorter print papers, more content online and greater exploration of new formats like a tablet edition. But don’t let that change the investment of your time in reading and acting on the news.

If you don’t like what gets written on these opinion pages of the Daily, don’t simply scorn the organization and tell your friends that we’re a horrible paper. Instead, come on over to Hamilton and add your voice. If you’re willing to take the time to write good columns or unbiased news articles, the Daily wants you.

And for those of you that, like me, inhabit the engineering side of campus, don’t think that the news or politics doesn’t need your voice. We need to hear from you the most! I know most of you don’t like to write, I know that most of you don’t like public speaking, but these are vital in the workplace. An idea is only a disconnected idea inside our head until we share it with others and we, as engineers, need skills to be able to do that.

We can let business and political science majors’ opinions rule the pages of our news media, but that isn’t the whole story. So I truly hope that one or two engineers among the 6,000 on campus are willing to be daring enough to share their perspectives with students through the Daily after I am gone. It is definitely a worthwhile experience.

I want to offer much thanks to all of my good friends and professors who shared my opinions or sent me letters of support for the messages I tried to get across through the Daily. It really meant a lot and I’d urge you to take the time once in a while to write a letter to the editor to continue conversations I started on topics such as engineering in society and computer security that are meaningful to students.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you – the readers of the Daily – who have been willing to take the time to read what I wrote, whether you agreed or not. I never wrote for money or for fame, I wrote for you.

Happy holidays,

Rick Hanton