Sometime in your first week back at Iowa State, you’ve stumbled upon the pages of the Iowa State Daily. Good for you. What you’re looking at is one of the most important tools to learning about the university you attend.

If you learn anything this week, let it be that the Daily is here to inform you and sometimes even entertain you.

It’s almost embarrassing to me the number of students I come across who don’t know about huge university issues that will impact their lives.

Our university is undergoing a lot of change.We’re now operating under a new president, and you should probably figure out how to pronounce his name.

Tuition has crept up, class sizes have risen and the list of reasons to be concerned about your education at this university has skyrocketed.

In one summer, Iowa State has lost a number of familiar things. Little Osborn Cottage was demolished, and the age-old steps leading to Beardshear Hall were rebuilt. And for students in the College of Design, a handful of classes have vanished.

Utilize your resources. The Daily isn’t the only method of gathering information, but it’s the one that’s geared specifically for ISU students about ISU news.

Reading this paper is the only way to guarantee that in another few weeks (or years), you won’t still be wandering about feeling a little disoriented and without an ounce of sense in your head as to what’s going on with your own university.

I’ve been told the Daily’s not “fun” enough to read anymore and that it focuses too much on news stories people “don’t get.” If you’re having similar thoughts, perhaps Toons is the publication for you.

True, hours of family fun the Daily does not provide. But it is your best way to gain knowledge about Iowa State, its dozens of departments, hundreds of faculty members and thousands of students.

From my experience both as an editor and as a reporter at the Daily, I’ve figured out that the average students will question me for weeks as to the difficulty of the crossword puzzles, but aren’t fazed a bit by a story regarding even the most important university issues.

It seems on any given day the front-page headline could scream “Geoffroy Bombs Purdue With Bags of Puppies” and the biggest point of concern among students would still be the newest bar specials advertised on page eight. Or perhaps it would still be the picture of a woman donning only a crafty device called a “Sister Strap-On.” Funny how everyone was flipping through the pages that day.

Just pay attention to what’s going on around you. Don’t let apathy be the reason tuition is increased and classes are cut. Show you care about what’s going on at our university by at least knowing enough to argue for what you care about.

I am not the Crossword Editor of the Daily. I do not know the answer to 5-down and I do not know what it means that you can only complete the puzzle on every other Tuesday. But I am a writer and a reader of this newspaper.

At the core of it all, I am just a college student who is concerned about his university, especially in a time of budget cuts, tuition hikes and a new presidency.

The Daily’s here to help inform students about things that affect us all. Don’t get left behind.

Cavan Reagan is a junior in journalism and mass communication and English from Bellevue, Neb. He is the research assistant for the Daily.