Dear Readers,

      Don’t come here for mediocrity. Not here, not this year.

      Don’t come here if you expect a student paper that focuses on “food, fitness, and fashion,” instead of political events, human interest stories, and hard hitting journalism.

     Don’t expect to only hear from us once a month, and in some instances longer because we simply couldn’t communicate with someone in an office just 15 feet away.

      Don’t pick us up in print, don’t look us up on-line, don’t download our new app, if you expect last year’s poor showing to resemble anything that we will be doing this time around.

       We are no longer “playing it safe,” no longer hiding from critics, and certainly no longer being called “Oncore.”

        I credit Billy Huntsman, my predecessor at this position, for keeping The Round Up afloat last year despite so much adversity, people will never know how vital he truly was.

        Our student news organization is not like most Universities.  We don’t have the luxury of having a professor full time at our disposal. We are truly run by the students and for the students.

       The staff we have assembled for the 2016-2017 academic year (“The Dream Team” as one of us put it) is exactly what the doctor ordered. We have care for our work, we discuss every detail, and most importantly: we have a passion for this. We will be working hard this year to restore the integrity and the relevance that countless individuals before us have worked so hard at for over a century.

       We have a lot to live up to, and we recognize that. We know we are not here to make friends in this business, and we will once again bring back the watchdog mentality, keeping students informed.

      I am more confident in Billy’s final article with us, titled “The Round Up Can and Will Recover from Oncore” than ever before, and I am positive that the students of NMSU will echo that in their interaction with us.

       I truly wish everyone a great start to their school year.  Keep your ears to the ground for any news, and as always, continue to write your own story.

Best of luck,

Albert Luna