EDITORIAL: Where we stood, one year later

Members of the DP's 112th Board of Editors and Managers reflect on their tenure. As we look back on our year at the DP's helm, we recall with satisfaction our hard-hitting crime coverage, specifically in the wake of September's wave of armed robberies, which preceded the shooting of College senior Patrick Leroy. We remember with pride our continued efforts to keep the heat on administrators responsible for timely completion of the Perelman Quadrangle student center, as well as those charged with implementing the 21st Century Plan for the Undergraduate Experience. We also hope the increased depth of our news and sports coverage, and the increased incisiveness of our editorial page, are trends that will carry on during the coming year. We leave as our legacies a redesigned paper, transmitted to our printer electronically and printed in color each day; a design department, dedicated to keeping the newspaper attractive, accessible and reader-friendly; a reorganized business staff, prepared to meet the challenges of commerce on the Internet; and 34th Street's online edition, as well as an improved Web site for the DP, including Campus Events and Classified advertising. Throughout the year, we made mistakes, of course. But although perfection was elusive, we didn't stop striving for error-free newspapers. We did our best to provide coverage that was accurate, fair and complete, just as we worked tirelessly to demonstrate the importance of a free campus press. We hope our successors, with whom we have had the pleasure of working, will remain steadfast in our traditions of healthy skepticism on the editorial side -- and total customer service on the business side. We are confident they will remember their year in charge much as we will recall ours: As an exhausting but rewarding experience that teaches as much about life, office politics and workplace relationships as it does about journalism and design or finance, credit and sales. Success, it is said, lies in the journey, not the destination. If that's the case, we've enjoyed our trip -- and as we face the enjoyable uncertainty of life with free evenings, we'll treasure our memories of time well spent here at The Daily Pennsylvanian.