As students enter a new fall semester with hopes of building upon the spring, so does the Kent Stater.

Named the best collegiate daily newspaper in Ohio, the staff of the Stater knows there’s a lot to be proud of – but, as any organization knows, ambition and the will to improve is a necessity.

There will be differences obvious to readers: The Stater’s new tabloid-style format, headlines with more “pop” and a focus on college-centric stories should captivate our audience.

Yet, significant change will be driven by alterations unbeknownst to readers: adjustments behind the scenes that determine the success of the Stater.

The “Our View” section, typically comprised of editors from the Stater staff, is a feature of the paper in need of an update.

At training meetings leading up to the first production night for Fall 2017, we recognized one distinctive, glaring weakness of the Stater: diversity.

While the staff has a long way to go regarding diversity, ensuring that the editorial board for the “Our View” section appropriately represents the wealth of races, ethnicities and backgrounds boasted by Kent State is an important step.

Moving forward, the Stater hopes that this section is a voice for the university, an opportunity to enact change in a unified manner that adequately addresses concerns of every student on campus.

So, though our current editorial staff is temporarily only a select few editors from the Stater, our organization hopes to soon reach out beyond student media to a multitude of diverse groups in the hopes of creating a section of our newspaper that effectively allows Kent State’s students the opportunity to confront pressing matters at the university concurrently.

As the Stater strives to make this year better than the last, our improvements would be all for naught if our efforts did not work simultaneously towards the betterment of Kent State.

 Lucas Misera is the opinion editor. Contact him at [email protected].