Before I say anything else, I think it’s only appropriate to start with an enthusiastic, “Welcome back,” to everyone who has been away for the summer. If this is your first year at JSC, then I offer you an even more enthusiastic, “Welcome!” Although it can be tough to get your brain back into an academic mindset after a three-month break, I’ve found that new semesters are always at least a little bit exciting.

Despite the gap in classes, however, many members of the community stayed hard at work over the summer. The campus now has freshly paved pathways and an entirely new set of Wi-Fi networks, and the NVU Core Curriculum Team used the lull in academics to buckle down on developing a new gen-ed program for unification. (The details on that situation can be found in one of the stories on page two, if you’re curious.)

Now that we’re in the final year of JSC and LSC’s time as separate institutions, pre-merger groundwork is moving into the fast lane. Designated smoking areas have been established across campus to wean smokers onto the idea of a smoke-free campus, which is what NVU will be next July. (See page 3 for that story.) Incoming freshmen are receiving IDs with a new bar code format on the front to better match Lyndon’s set-up, and current students, staff and faculty are encouraged to go to Public Safety to get a sticker on their own IDs so that they can match too. The new Wi-Fi networks are called “NVU” and allow users to access the Internet at both Johnson and Lyndon without having to reconnect.

Whether you’re excited, disgusted, or entirely uninterested by the upcoming merger, it’s hard to deny that it will affect you. If you haven’t already, now is the time to voice concerns and suggestions, while decisions are still being made. This is especially important if you have multiple years with the institution ahead of you — if you’re graduating in May as I am, there’s definitely a lot more room to say, “Whatever, I’ll be gone before it matters” (although it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should).

In the spirit of improving the flow of information and communication between our campuses, Basement Medicine has partnered with a group of students in Lyndon’s electronic journalism arts program. Beginning this semester, and hopefully continuing on into next year and the merger itself, we will be featuring their articles with the hope of better reflecting the full scope of NVU. Over the past year, we’ve tried to cover the merger as thoroughly as possible from Johnson’s point of view, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Lyndon’s perspective of the situation might differ.

(To read the first of these stories, kindly make your way to page 14, where you’ll find an article about how the unification will affect the athletics departments.)

With any luck, maybe this partnership can help to break the ice and act as an inspiration to any other groups of students, at either campus, who might be looking for a collaborative experience to start setting the scene before the unification becomes complete next summer. Despite the constant talk of NVU, I think it can sometimes be surprisingly easy for all of us to forget that our respective campus is only half of the equation and that there’s an entire other student body with just as much investment in these changes as us. I think it’s about time that we heard their stories too.

— Cayla Fronhofer, Editor-in-Chief