To our first-time readers, welcome. To our returning readers, welcome back.

We’re over a week into the school year, and that means several things have probably already happened: Student organizations have held their first meetings of the semester, professors have handed out the first homework assignments and fall athletics have kicked off.

Meanwhile, freshmen have likely been making new friends while upperclassmen have been catching up with old ones. Anxiety about classes, schedules and sleep deprivation is met with excitement for another year of educational opportunities, community and fun.

And of course, your campus newspaper has turned on the lights of its newsroom and gotten to work once again.

As always, The Simpsonian will strive to give a voice to students by telling their stories and keeping them informed of news on campus—especially news that impacts and interests them.

We unfortunately started off the year with news about a racially charged meme that a student sent to other students. This story followed a couple others we published this summer about a negative social media post and news about Sen. Nate Boulton staying in the Iowa Senate despite accusations of sexual misconduct.

People who followed the national news cycle this summer know there seemed to be nothing but bad news, such as the passing of Mollie Tibbetts, Aretha Franklin and Sen. John McCain.

Make no mistake: Like any newspaper, The Simpsonian doesn’t refrain from reporting bad news on campus when bad news happens. If the college is losing money, we’ll tell you. If a sports team loses, we’ll tell you.

But as fellow human beings and Simpson students, reporting stories that make people smile or burst with pride for their sports team, friend or roommate is what we love about our job.

When we learn about those stories, we’ll tell you.

Everyday acts of kindness aren’t usually big news stories, but they sure do go a long way toward making the big, negative news stories a little easier to bear. After all, the most important things in life don’t always appear on the front page but in our day-to-day experiences with others. We encourage you all to make those experiences good ones.

There will be times we make errors in our reporting. Please let us know so we can do better.

There will be times we publish stories you don’t like. Let us know.

There will be times when you think we should cover a particular topic or an upcoming event. Let us know.

When our reporters do a good job covering a story, let them know. Encouragement can work wonders for a writer.

Finally, we ask you all to be kind to one another in person and online. Because kindness can work wonders for us all.