As college students at a public university, there are certain procedures and rules which must be followed to maintain the integrity and respectability of our campus. Though these rules may have been written decades ago, what they stand for still holds true today.

In the past few years, many of these basic, fundamental rules have been broken time and time again. But the most critical governing rule on this campus has been overlooked, ignored and opposed by the vast majority of ISU students for far too long.

As members of the Iowa State Daily editorial board, we have a proud legacy to live up to and maintain by following this time-honored rule.

The rule is that free speech begins on a college campus and we, as students, must shoulder the responsibility of exercising this right no matter what the consequences.

In the upcoming months, our opinions will be made through the pages of this newspaper. Unless you wish to break the rule, your opinions will be reflected in this paper as well.

Whether you write a letter to the editor complaining about a decision made by the administration or whether you participate in a seven-day hunger strike on central campus, whatever you do to exercise your right of free speech will be guaranteed a place in this newspaper.

We will aggressively attack any issue which we feel has the potential to harm the students.

And we hope you do the same. Don’t just sit there and go through the motions of being a college student. Let’s all live up to that reputation that college campuses have for being the breeding ground of new ideas and thoughts.

We’ve been lazy, all of us, for far too long. Now we need to do something about it.

The only rule we need to live by is the idea that we govern this campus with our ideas and voices. Remember, we are powerless when we choose to keep quiet.