Ah, Dead Week – five days in which nothing is supposed to be due, but everything is. Five days leading up to the true tests of Finals Week.

And the last five daily issues of the Daily this semester.

How did it go so fast?

The Daily staff knew it would be a semester of change from the start. What we didn’t know was what that change would entail.

The main source of all this change was the addition of the copy desk to the newsroom. Copy desk editors are responsible for reading the stories and then laying them out on the page. Previously this had been done by the section editors, managing editor and editor in chief – now five new people would be responsible for the look of the paper, for carrying through the work of everyone else to the pages of the paper.

Many of the copy editors had never written headlines before, let alone laid out a page. With only a week of training under their belts they were learning how to do their job every night they were at work.

At the same time, people were adjusting to their new jobs and the new jobs of their co-workers. A new staff always brings new strengths and weaknesses to the newsroom, and while we had worked together the year before it took time to figure out where everyone stood and what his or her role in the paper was.

So we bumped along, learning through our trials and errors both in the paper and with each other.

When I walked into the Daily office in August, I had an idea of what I thought the newsroom and the paper should be like. After the first week of publication the idea had become more defined, and as the semester continued, it spread to the entire newsroom.

As we head into our last week of publication I think everyone on the Daily staff can look back on the semester and be proud of the work they’ve done. While I still cringe sometimes thinking about some of the problems and mistakes we’ve had, I also recognize the important part they played in the development of the newsroom and the paper.

There are two Daily staffers who are looking at their final week of contributing to this development before graduation – Jeff Stell and Julie Rule.

Stell has been writing for the Daily for the past two and a half years and his knowledge of ISU football, basketball and wrestling has been a great asset to the Daily’s sports section.

We’re also hoping to see Julie making some return visits to say hello to the copy desk where she was in charge of editing and laying out the inside news pages. After working previously as a reporter for two years and a copy editor for a year, Julie helped lead the copy desk during its first semester. She did a great job and we’re going to miss her.

So the newsroom gets ready to change again. New people are hired and others take different roles in the whole process.

Luckily, the energy, creativity and drive that has kept us going all semester will continue into the next. And as we constantly push to improve and innovate, we’ll continue to learn and develop our skills.

The end result will be something everyone – from the newsroom to the campus community – can enjoy and be proud of.

Andrea Hauser is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Edgewood. She is editor in chief of the Daily.