Another semester has flown by, marking another one-eighth of my college career over and leaving only one more to go.

While this semester has been like most others — a required class I didn’t want to take, last-minute stress from constant procrastination and spending more of my free time having fun rather than being productive — one thing has been glaringly different.

ISU student, faculty and staff response to the Daily.

Never before in my four years at Iowa State have the Daily’s readers been so supportive and complimentary.

Sure, we’ve received letters to the editor lamenting over our “liberal bias” and grousing about Greg Jerrett’s Dennis Miller-esque antics.

The amount of negative feedback the Daily has received hasn’t changed that much from preceding years. It’s generally the most dissatisfied people who will respond to a newspaper’s content and coverage.

The most notable difference is in the amount of positive feedback the Daily has received. We’ve gotten letters of approval and applause, and we’ve heard many positive comments from students, faculty and administrators saying the paper is the best it’s ever been.

That means a lot to us, and especially to me, so we want to thank all of you who took the time to compliment us on what we’ve considered a banner year for the Daily.

And we’re only half done.

The Daily has some big plans for the spring semester, particularly for the Daily Online.

We hope to fulfill some of your requests for features such as box scores in the sports section and audio and video clips on the Web site.

Just as we’ll be making changes in our publications, we’ll be making a couple changes in our newsroom staff.

The newsroom has no December graduates, but Amie Van Overmeer, head news editor, and Kati Jividen, news editor, won’t be back in the spring.

Amie will be studying abroad in Spain, but she’ll be back next fall.

She has been an incredible contributor to the staff, putting in way too many hard hours while always having a smile on her face. Amie, you’ll be missed.

Kati has helped make this one of the biggest police-news years ever — or at least since I’ve been around.

The Daily reported more significant crimes with follow-up coverage because Kati formed a trust between herself and the Department of Public Safety. Kati, things won’t be the same without you around.We all wish you both the best of luck.

Although we’re losing (temporarily, at least) two of the most talented student journalists I’ve ever worked with, the Daily will continue to bring the readers what you want and aim to exceed your expectations.

Thanks for a wonderful semester, and I’m looking forward to serving you again — but the three weeks off will be nice.