Most people make resolutions at the beginning of each new year in hope of improving some aspect of their lives. In the spirit of the holiday season, the staff at The Daily Collegian also decided to set some goals for this semester.

First, we will continue to offer you both accurate and fair coverage of the issues most important to Penn State and its student body. While I (or any other newspaper editor in the world, for that matter) cannot promise we won't make any honest mistakes this semester, please be assured we understand the importance of being correct.

We also understand our responsibility as an independent student voice to provide insightful, unbiased reporting on what you need to know about our community. Since The Daily Collegian is the only campus newspaper, you won't find more comprehensive coverage of Penn State's athletic teams, research endeavors, or campus events in any other publication.

Next, our staff plans to develop even more ways to keep you, our readers, interested in the newspaper.

This fall, we replaced our Friday's arts section with Venues, a magazine that provides listings of movies and bar entertainment along with feature stories about weekend events. Since we've received good reviews about Venues so far from our readers, we're going to find ways to expand its content.

We're also adding new features to our Tuesday science and health section each semester. Last semester, we added an "Ask Science Lions" column for readers to ask questions about scientific phenomena, and then we run the responses.

Finally, even though we devote the most time to campus issues, the Collegian will continue to run the most recent news on the war against terrorism abroad and also right here at home. We'll provide stories from the front lines, and also articles written by our staff to let you know how the conflict affects State College.

If collegiate journalism intrigues you, please consider being a part of one of the largest college newspapers in the United States. We're going to be conducting tryouts from 6 -7:30 p.m. next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at our office in the James Building at 123 S. Burrowes Street. All you need to bring to the interview is a blue book and an interest to learn about the newspaper business.

As always, if you have a question or concern about our content or newsroom operation, please feel free to call our office at 865-1828, or e-mail me at JillLeonard@psu.edu.

With our resolutions in mind, this semester looks to be a promising one for The Daily Collegian. And, unlike some other people, I'm sure, you can bet that we won't be breaking them.