Welcome to another year at Towson University.

Whether you are a budding freshman spreading your wings and your Twin XL bedding in your first room in the Towers or a seasoned veteran with just a few credits to go, I have one message for you: start learning about your environment.

We are here to help you with our first issue of the year, a Survival Guide that will hopefully provide you with a few tips your orientation leaders might skim over, such as when to avoid purchasing your textbooks and which residence halls will give you nightmares and why.

The Towerlight is committed to providing holistic, unbiased and engaging information for our audience—about everything from Maravene ‘Wonder Woman Fancy Scarf’ Loeschke to the hate/bias incident down the hall, but you must take the first steps to learn the ins and outs of policy, academics and the way the University organism works.

Many students choose an apathetic route, choosing to only focus on classes, which is perfectly acceptable. You might have a part-time job, or your studies might be particularly important to you.

But in the real world you don’t just have your career, and you’re not just sitting in a classroom. You must interact with difficult and stubborn individuals.

You’re going to haggle with a salesman and someone along the way, personally or professionally, will screw you over.

Now Towson absolutely doesn’t set out to screw up your life, but if you discover an error in your last assignment, or feel mistreated or misrepresented by a professor or colleague, the best way to go about fixing that is to be knowledgeable about the process and “office” politics.

Know what is acceptable and why certain rules are set in place. Be informed.

And especially with the upcoming presidential elections and hot-button issues on the Nov. 6 ballot, you might consider learning a little more about the Romney/Obama face-off and formulate an opinion—these decisions directly impact you and your campus life.

Again, we’re here to help. I urge all of you to pick up our paper every Monday and Thursday, not just to play Sudoku during that god-awful 8 a.m. British Literature lecture, but to be knowledgeable about the campus that inevitably will be your home for the next four plus years.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again.

The best way for us to get a pulse on what issues are present and what the student, faculty, staff body care about, we need your help.

If you know of something you think is important, no matter how small, bring it to our attention. We’ll always hear you out.

This is my senior year, Towson, and I intend to throw myself wholeheartedly into my work—the paper, my internship, my campus. Will you do the same?

Again, welcome, class of 2016 and all the old faces—I hope to see you around.