I always thought The Wichitan’s slogan was a little cliché. “Your campus. Your news.” Of course it’s news, it’s a newspaper, I always thought. But here, on the last production night of my last issue as editor and student, I finally realize the importance of that cheesy, four-word slogan.

It’s your campus. We do this for you, the student, the professor, the president, the custodian—the reader.

Yes, this publication exists to train tomorrow’s journalists and editors—even the evil yet life-giving ad salesmen and saleswomen—but more importantly than that, we exist to keep you informed, to hold administrators and decision-makers accountable, to facilitate needed discussion, and to chronicle all the great and not-so-great things that happen in between.

As I list these things, an example of each flashes across my mind: keeping students informed during the bomb threat, reporting on the proposed outsourcing of nearly 100 maintenance jobs, and fostering healthy debate on things like a poorly executed poster and what that says about gender relations on campus.

Certainly, we have been far from perfect in  those duties, (we’re students, after all) but I can leave this experience knowing we made a difference. We did good, and I know the staff I leave behind will continue on that path.

I am happy to be done, but I wish the end of this leg of my journey didn’t come at such a momentous and exciting time for this university. As I move on, MSU’s first female president will take the helm, new buildings will go up, and once-bitter enemies in student government will put their differences aside for the good of the students.

But with all of that change comes an even greater need for an independent newspaper. As editor, I am made painfully aware of those who wish to shut us down—those who wish to hide the truth—but know this: Unlike those people, we have no agenda other than to make this university a better place.

So stay informed. Read The Wichitan. Speak up if you see injustice and we will find out why and how to stop it. After all, it’s “Your campus.”