Scenery around UW-Eau Claire has been changing as of late, and it is sure to continue. Over winter break, trees between Davies Center and the Phillips parking lot were removed. A building on Water Street was completely demolished. And construction on the new Davies Center will begin in late spring, adding to the changing look of the campus. But that’s not the only big change coming.

At the end of this semester, The Spectator will begin the transition from its current Web site to a completely revamped, improved and more user-friendly version. Since the beginning of The Spectator’s utilization of a Web site, it has been doing so through the use of College Publisher, an MTV-affiliated, online-hosted college newspaper system and application service provider. As time has progressed, though, The Spectator found that certain technological features it wanted were unable to be utilized while using College Publisher.

That is why, last semester, The Spectator began the necessary process in order to get its own Web site with the technological capabilities it wants. Things such as better slideshows, easier video utilization and easier navigation will be only a click away once The Spectator makes the switch. The Web site’s layout and design are also going to be able to be controlled and utilized better by The Spectator, something that hopefully will make visiting the Web site daily a priority instead of something to do out of boredom.

But in order to give our readers a reason to visit our current Web site daily, and subsequently our new one once the transition is made, the entire

Spectator staff has come together and created goals, both for the paper as a whole and as individuals.

For one, students need to be a more vital part of the paper and need to be better represented. In order to do this, each individual staff member will be making it a priority to get more students in their stories and to make them an important source as opposed to filler.

Additionally, in order to get everyone on staff experience with technology before the Web site change, each staff member will be responsible for doing either one video or slideshow per print issue. But that’s the minimum. As the semester goes on, we hope, as a paper, to begin producing video and slide show components with one story from each section. From there we will be adding online exclusives, stories that can only be viewed on our Web site. Podcasts will also eventually be utilized, along with better links and even blogs written by staff members.

Something that won’t be changing, though, is our desire to be the best newspaper we can be. We represent the students of UW-Eau Claire, and because the students who go here are so great, we want to represent you. If you want to get involved with your newspaper, we welcome you to share your thoughts. You can make article comments on our Web site, www.spectatornews.com, or you can write a letter to the editor or a column in our opinion section. Or, if you think through your actions you can make The Spectator better, we would love to have you as a freelancer to help us out. If shorter suggestions are more your thing, then Tweet or Facebook post anytime about what you think and what we could do to improve the paper or what we are doing well.

If you feel you’ve been misquoted, misrepresented or feel your views are missing from The Spectator’s pages, tell us as soon as possible. Contact me directly at [email protected], call us at 836-4416 or stop by our office in Hibbard 104. If I am around, I would love to hear from you and would enjoy discussing the newspaper’s improvement, or anything else you want to discuss, for that matter. We really do value your input and are always open to suggestions. If you have story ideas, we would gladly take those, too.

We’re a student newspaper, and just like all students, we still are, and always will be, learning. Everyone makes mistakes, and that goes for us, too. But we have high standards for our staff members and expect the very best from them. Please let us know if and when we need to set the record straight. If you don’t tell us you’re unhappy about something we write or how we write it, we can’t correct it and prevent it from happening in the future.

Hansen is a senior print journalism major and editor in chief for The Spectator.