As a new semester begins, it brings with it a host of new challenges on campus and here at the Mass Media. While you were picking out new classes and filling gaps in your schedules, we were here filling sizable gaps left by the departures of News Editor extraordinaire Olesia Plohki and one of the best Arts Editors to grace this publications fair pages in a long time, Ms. Amy Julian. Both have moved on to bigger and better things, and I’m sure you’ll find over the coming weeks that their replacements are more than capable of taking over where they left off.

In News, familiarize yourself with young guns Caleb Nelson and Davin Surin who have stepped into the fore as co-editors of the section. Keep your eye on these two as, backed by a talented stable of writers, they will be supplying you with everything you need to know on a week-to-week basis.

In the spirit of change ushered in by our new president, we have decided to do something a little different in Arts this semester. Instead of having a unified Arts section, the Arts will be subdivided into various categories such as Music, edited by industry insider Bonnie Godas, Film/Theater, Fine Arts and Reads, as well as the work of a number of talented freelancers. This will also be the new home of the Foodie Files and Darby’s Dirty Secrets, just to spice things up a little bit. You’ll have to bear with us while we let this Frankenstein of an experiment mature, but rest assured Arts will be rampaging through the hillside in no time leaving a trail of informative, entertaining cultural knowledge in its wake.

Sports returns with a full complement of experienced professionals in Ryan Thomas (also of the Boston Globe) and Charlie Peters, as well as Sebastian Lena who brings a deadly accurate free throw percentage to the section along with a talent for the written word.

Another thing to keep an eye out for is the website (www.umassmedia.com) which will have a dizzying array of original content, multimedia support and contributions from the two headed blog-monster that is Dan MacDowell and Keith Raboin. We’ll be constantly adding new features and redesigning things throughout the semester, so watch out for the Mass Media exploding into cyberspace and we’ll let you know when we do something cool (but you should routinely check anyways).

All in all, it’s sizing up to be a very exciting semester and we look forward to continuing as your humble media servant on this campus and beyond.

Ben Whelan

Editor in Chief