The Forum is a new biweekly addition to The Daily Texan. While the page complements the opinion section, it serves a slightly different purpose. The Forum is a place for students and professors to engage in a discussion regarding pressing issues of the moment. But unlike the opinion section which focuses on commentary regarding recent news items alone, each Forum page will have a predetermined theme, allowing the featured pieces to take on a more reflective tone. 

The theme for this issue is “back to school,” and the essays below are submissions from incoming freshmen regarding their thoughts and feelings about coming to the University of Texas. In order to determine which submissions would be featured on the page, the Texan opened a contest to all freshmen interested via the official 2018 Facebook page. Once the pieces came in, we chose three essays that stood out based on the perspectives they offered. 

The first day of college, the first day of the semester or even just the first day of the week presents an opportunity to set goals and work toward achieving them. The goal for this Forum page is not only to provoke thought and reflection, but also to create a space where members of this University can offer thoughtful perspectives and expert opinions on issues that aren’t necessarily tied to the previous day’s news. This is a unique feature for a newspaper, and we hope you enjoy what this page offers. 

This is my third year at the University of Texas at Austin and also my third year at The Daily Texan. As a finance, business honors and Plan II major, I don’t see my involvement with the Texan in a purely journalistic light. Rather, I see writing for the Texan as an opportunity to call attention to matters that students and faculty at this University care about, to research those issues and to offer some sort of limited insight on them. Last year, I worked as an associate editor on the editorial board. As a board, we wrote about the upcoming gubernatorial election, stealth dorms, the drama among the UT regents and Student Government elections, to name a few topics. Working as the Forum editor this year should be no different in terms of the topics we discuss and the audience we reach. 

All members of the UT community are welcome to write for us, and we are always on the hunt for new perspectives and fresh ideas. The next issue’s theme is Sept. 11, 2001. If you were in New York that day or if you lost someone in the attacks and would like to write about it for our next issue, please email [email protected]. 

Malik is a Plan II, finance and business honors junior from Austin.