With a new year turning the page

In contrast to the anxiety felt at the beginning of the school year there is a definite feeling of excitement for the New Year and the new semester.

I'm not sure I've ever seen UNC's campus more bustling than I did while walking around campus yesterday — as students rushed to class and caught up with friends after an excessively long winter break.

The new semester also offers those of us who didn't do as well as we had hoped last semester a chance to start anew with the disillusionment that somehow we'll manage to wake up in time for our 8 a.m. classes.

But with this chance to start anew also brings a sense of anticipation for the unexpected.

What does 2009 have in store for us?

What will be the overarching theme of the new year?

The election cycle dominated the news of 2008 which culminated with the historic election of Barack Obama. And sadly with his victory also came the demise of priceless impersonations that we have come to love over the course of the year although Sarah Palin has yet to completely depart from the airwaves.

The faltering economy also dominated the headlines in the last few months of 2008 and will continue to affect University policy.

There have always been battles over tuition increases but in this current economic downturn the calls to minimize the size of the tuition increases will certainly be stronger than ever. Budgetary gaps will surely bring renewed controversy in a new year.

Indeed the editorial board has weighed in on its share of controversies last year including the push to build a new airport and the vandalism of N.C. State University's Free Speech Tunnel.

And let's not forget Carolina Students for Life's graphic abortion display at the heart of campus.

The good news is that all of these episodes have prepared us to continue to offer astute opinions on the potential controversies in 2009 at UNC.

It has especially prepared us to closely follow the student government campaign season.

Although campaigning only officially begins today we've already dealt with several contentious issues involving potential Student Body President candidates and the Board of Elections.

And controversy is rarely absent from student government elections.

We'll continue to critically monitor the election process as we prepare to offer the editorial board's endorsements.

We also look forward to grading this year's elected officials later in the semester to continue to keep our student government officials accountable to their constituents.

On our own editorial board we've added several new board members. Their diverse opinions and perspectives will better allow the editorial board to offer pertinent insight on the issues.

We've also shaken up our columnist structure. By increasing the number of our columnists we'll now be having biweekly contributions.

This new arrangement will allow the columns to focus more specifically on a particular topic of interest to the columnist.

I'm certainly going to miss working with my former opinion co-editor Greg Margolis who is studying abroad this semester in South America. But I'm confident that opinion's new associate editor James Ding will bring a fresh approach to the opinion page.

Although the composition has changed significantly from last semester the goals of this page haven't. The opinion page is the University's forum for debate a place to hold people accountable and offer informed solutions to difficult problems. Our editorials will continue to boast the same level of clarity and accuracy as last semester's.

And as always if you don't like our opinion write a letter to the editor and let us know.

There's no turning back happy 2009.