Welcome back, fellow Spartans, to another year of frolic and joy at Case Western Reserve University. While few would call CWRU a place of unmitigated happiness—you might find it to be more akin to a factory of sadness later on in the academic year once exams and essays pile up—I want to start this year on a positive note. 

Ignore the naysayers: CWRU and Cleveland are special places. You can make some of the best memories of your life here with the right mindset. There are so many hidden gems all around. There are many amazing attractions to visit and venues to patronize around Cleveland, and The Observer acts as a guide for them. However, the true gems here are far closer to campus.

While it may be hackneyed to say so, the people truly make CWRU a special place. Walking around campus, all of us have our own classes, responsibilities and lives. Yet we all come together to form the special tapestry that is CWRU culture. The amount of effort people put into the clubs and organizations around here is difficult to comprehend at times. However, behind each event, performance or publication is the diligent and often heartfelt work of a CWRU student just like you. 

Here at The Observer, we are here to highlight the unseen worlds that make up our university, giving students the recognition they deserve. Whether it be an Undergraduate Student Government referendum, a Footlighters production or a tennis tournament, there are always so many things going on around campus and The Observer is the place to stay on top of it all.

Beyond showcasing the work of students, we also act as a platform for student voices. We all have things we love or dislike about the ongoing events here at CWRU, and by being a completely independent, student-run publication, we are able to give a voice to student concerns and interests. A community cannot thrive without a newspaper, as we give vital information and context to important events that impact us all. Newspapers also hold accountable those who might otherwise go unnoticed in their malpractice. 

No individual can keep track of everything happening at a place as large and as diverse as CWRU, but The Observer is here to act as a resource for all students who wish to remain engaged in their community.

Engagement in student affairs has historically been rare among the CWRU population; however, that can and should change. The more we recognize the efforts of our peers, the better the functions and offerings around campus will be. Similarly, the more awareness of the issues going around campus there is, the more we can do to collectively take action. Much of the actions that were taken during the pandemic that ensured the functioning and safety of CWRU happened because students spoke up for what was important. Only if we remain attuned to our university and make our voices heard—about the good and the bad—can we move forward as a community.

This next year, The Observer will continue to work to be as essential to CWRU students as portable swipes for The Den are. We must meet students where they are, so we will continue to improve our digital offerings. Over the past semester we greatly bolstered our video output, highlighting the voices of everyday students going about their lives through various interviews. We will continue to provide this content and expand in ways that make our work even more accessible. Additionally, we will continue to deliver our digital newsletter to email inboxes around campus along with our traditional print paper, giving students more options to enjoy our content.

We will continue working to make The Observer something people want to pick up and read every single week, not just through our stories but also through newly introduced games and cartoons in our print issues. All this, along with behind the scenes to allow more writer freedom, will hopefully allow us to properly serve the CWRU community better than ever before. However, we can’t do this without all of you. 

Joining The Observer as a staff writer is easier than ever and just requires a quick email to observer@case.edu to get the process started. We are the platform for student voices, and we want as many of them as possible to make our weekly portraits of campus life as cohesive as possible. If you don’t want to join our organization directly—I get it, there’s tons of other cool things to do around here—you can always write a letter to be published in our paper. Letters to the editor give us the ability to highlight specific issues that we otherwise would’ve never heard about. So if there is ever anything on your mind that you think is worth sharing with the whole university, please send one in on our website observer.case.edu or by emailing observer@case.edu. 

This next year will be a pivotal one for CWRU as we all move forward from two years of restrictions. Campus life has changed since the pandemic and it won’t go back to the way it was—but it can be better. We have all learned a lot of things over the past few years, and now with our new freedoms and a larger campus population, we must come together like never before and redefine what it means to be a CWRU student for the better. All of this requires all of us, so I hope you will join us here at The Observer in this work. We need you now more than ever.