With unprecedented cutbacks in social services throughout Calif. and deep budget cuts to almost every pot of money in the state, we as residents of Calif. have all been affected. Yet, no institution has been subject to the amount of uncertainty and deep-seated change as students.

From canceled courses to an anticipated boom in class sizes, students will be forced to reevaluate the way they plan for school.

That is why we at The Collegian have been hard at work for the past few weeks gathering information to prepare our readers for the upcoming school year. And this year, we have tuned into the needs of the student body and have expanded our resources to better serve our readers.

Last spring, The Collegian distributed an online readership survey to the entire student body. We spent the better half of the summer analyzing the results, and from it we gained valuable insight into how our readers evaluate newspaper content and what they want from our editors.

One of the most striking responses we received was that our staff has not been accessible. In response, we have made ourselves available through our web site, by e-mail and in person. Our goal this year is to expand the lines of communication between ourselves and our readers.

We want to ensure that The Collegian provides opportunities for individuals and organizations to respond to any work that is published under our heading.

We have also heard the claims of inaccuracies and factual errors, and we plan to address those issues this year as well.

Our core values lay in producing fair and unbiased content that adheres to the journalistic code of ethics. Fairness, accuracy, accountability and excellence in journalism are paramount.

We will try with the utmost vigilance to ensure every story is fact checked thoroughly and that our writing accurately communicates the voice of our sources. It’s important to us to fulfill public trust and satisfy our readers’ expectations.

Likewise, we plan to hold student legislation and the governing bodies on campus to the same standards of accountability.
Striving for excellence in our print edition and becoming more accessible is only half of our goal.

In recent years, it has been our ability to deal with an ever-changing and increasingly interconnected world that presents the greatest opportunity to reach our readers.

Last year, the former editor in chief emphasized the evolution and growth of technology through the use of paperless medium. Our multimedia team plans to continue this trend by evolving our web site and significantly advancing our digital content.

However, as we navigate and conquer this evolving digital landscape, it becomes increasingly more important to focus on the aspects that make journalism reliable and effective. To us, this means emphasizing foremost news value likes accuracy and truth in reporting.

Our content is our greatest asset, not the platform from which it is conveyed. The common denominator is journalism that preserves the industry’s integrity. So, whichever way you decide to access your news it will reflect our commitment to presenting information that affects the campus community.

The Collegian staff is devoted to providing excellence in reporting. We recognize our responsibility to Fresno State and we’re delighted to have you as readers. So please write in, we will respond — we are accessible in a variety of platforms. Send us an e-mail, write to an editor, follow us on twitter or leave comments on our online articles. Your feedback helps us become a stronger news forum.

This school year we pledge to give our readers 100 percent, so please keep reading.

Brian Maxey is the editor in chief of The Collegian.