“It is the man who determines what is said, not the words,” or so said Henry David Thoreau. And I would like to think that the Spartan is no different. Hopefully you have all noticed the improvements and changes to our student newspaper, made thanks to a concerted effort by the Spartan staff.

And thanks to all of you readers, the Spartan online received more than 2,600 hits on a single day following the release of this semester’s first issue. But, as the editor of that Web site, I’ve been thinking that maybe there’s lots of stories on campus that happen ‘in between’ the bi-weekly Spartan publishing.

Thanks to the Web site, the Spartan has the potential to be even more interesting and interactive – and hopefully inspire a few readers to become writers. For example, we are able to publish stories instantly, so any breaking news on campus will be available as its written, so keep checking the site throughout the week.

Also, I and a few of my fellow Spartan writers will be writing some Web-only news and feature stories and columns to appear during the Spartan’s off weeks.

And – (yes, there’s more), our software now allows us to blog, so click on in to see some of our student-produced blogs, including a fun blog about Castleton ‘after hours’ and what people are doing late-night. You never know if your name will come up, right? We’re also looking for a few good bloggers. Pitch us your idea and you could be the next citizen journalist.

Finally, we also want to launch a new feature of Web-exclusive essays about Castleton – written by you! We are putting out a call to anyone (students, professors, staff, faculty, alumni, etc.) with a story about Castleton to write an essay (it doesn’t have to be long) that says something about your Castleton experience.

You don’t have to be a writer, and there are no rules about structure or style (although we reserve the right to edit for spelling errors, profanity, etc). Anyone with a story will be considered. We will publish as many essays as we can, but we do ask that they be true and honest. E-mail any of these essays to the Web site at castletonspartan@castleton.edu.

Again, thank you all for making The Spartan and Castletonspartan.com such a success. Keep checking us out to see these new features come to life, and, as always, write us and let us know how we’re doing and what you would like to read.