New has often been considered synonymous with better. If this stands to reason, Missouri Southern should have a banner year.

Big changes have taken place since last spring semester; bring some new face and moving familiar folks to new positions. This issue of The Chart features several of these.

While many of the changes are only in certain departments, there are obvious university-wide changes.

The most noticeable addition to the campus is the new lion statue in front of Billingsly Student Center.

There was a great deal of debate over whether the campus needed it, and if too much money was being spent on it. Regardless, it’s here and in a few years it will be an accepted part of the landscape.

Probably one of the most significant new faces to come to Southern is that of Interim President Alan Marble.  

Marble was the president of Crowder College in Neosho before to accepting the position as assistant to president Bruce Speck and now is interim president since Speck stepped down over the summer.

The Chart is not exempt from all the changes circulating around campus.

We have embraced the idea of new beginnings.

An influx of new faces will be gracing the pages of our publication. Some of these will be writers, and others, photographers.

We look forward to the passion for journalism the new staff will bring to the newsroom.

Readers won’t notice some of the changes we have implemented.

We are streamlining our production with the implementation of new guidelines, templates and resources in an effort to provide a more professional experience for students moving into media careers.

While we celebrate our new faces, a number of our senior staff is returning this semester.

Many of our staff spent time over the summer attending leadership and goal setting courses.

Other staff members had summer internships, while others freelanced for various publications.

Ultimately, it is our desire to produce a quality publication that we as staff members—along with the rest of the campus—can take pride in.

We are going to make mistakes and have errors, we know this.

As much as we try to use The Chart as preparation for a professional career it remains still a learning environment.

So here’s to making changes and taking risks.

The ups and downs of the past may have helped to build character, but now it’s time to look to the future.

Get ready for the new beginnings.