Welcome fellow Falcons!

It is time for another exciting year of college to begin, and hopefully for you, it will include The BG News.

In case you don’t already know, we here at The BG News are your source for all the news on campus and in the Bowling Green community, but here on the Forum page we are not as worried about the news, so much as your opinion of what is happening in the news.

The Forum page is your hub for venting about things that may bother you or things you see on campus you love.

As an independent, student-run publication, we have the autonomy to print things everyone doesn’t necessarily agree with, which means this is where you need to go to get your voice heard even if what you have to say may not be the popular opinion.

We publish weekly and biweekly columns from columnists who have committed to writing for us, and you don’t have to be a journalism or communications major to write a regular column. We also have guest columns for those who want to write about a topic just once, letters to the editor, which are similar to guest columns, but shorter. Also, don’t forget about Falcon Screeches, which are short anonymous rants we publish every Monday. There are plenty of ways for you to voice your opinion.

Our only real requirement for writing on the Forum page is that you be factual. If you want to say “so-and-so believes this is wrong,” you have to back that up and show where so-and-so actually said that. Of course, you can always say, “it seems like so-and-so believes this is wrong.” In the second example, you are not saying so-and-so actually believes something, just that it seems that way, which is opinion; and opinion is a wonderful thing.

The old saying is “opinions are like noses, everybody has one,” and that is what we deal with on the Forum page: the fact that everybody has an opinion and they are all equally valuable to the collective conversation.

You have worked hard to get where you are today, but college is about more than making good grades and studying for a career. It is also about finding your unique voice, and that is why the Forum page exists.

You may read things here that you agree with or things that infuriate you [sometimes both in the same column], but either way you are invited to respond. So take advantage of that. Pick up The BG News, read the Forum section and then let us know what you think.

It’s your college experience and it’s up to you to make the most of it.