Any paper’s purpose should be first and foremost to serve its readers. To keep up to date with what they care about, and talk about the issues, news and events they need to read. You are able to hear from us, the editorial board of The Daily Eastern News, often on this edit page through editorials and columns. And by deciding what to put in the paper when, we decide what information is prioritized and seen by our readers on a daily basis.

Now, I think it is time that we heard from you.

To better know how to serve our readers, we need to know what they need and want to know. To do this, we need to keep the lines of communication open and keep ourselves as transparent and open to criticism as possible.

This is why The Daily Eastern News will set up a stand from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday by the Food Court at the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. At this stand, our staff members will pass out surveys asking for feedback on what you would like to see us cover, what you think we need to improve on and other ways we can make the The Daily Eastern News a paper you can rely on.

Any comments, or constructive criticism, will help. All we ask is that you be honest and fair in your assessment of us. Let us know what you like, but even more importantly perhaps, what you do not like. There may be some decisions we as a paper make or aspects of journalism itself that we do not necessarily see eye-to-eye on, but it is still important to keep that dialogue and conversation open and honest between both parties.

If you have questions about our process, the way the paper is run or journalism itself, we will also do our best to answer those. Though it is normally our job to ask questions, we are more than willing to answer any ones that people might have.

Our staff is made up of passionate people, who love showing others what we do and how we do it. We will be more than willing to open up about why we did or did not run a certain article, why we chose a certain photo, or how we plan on addressing and fixing issues and mistakes that come up in the future.

Also included at the stand will be job applications for various positions on our staff. If you see area that  you think needs improvement at the paper, maybe you can try your hand at it yourself. We are always looking for people to join our team, from all areas of campus. While people sometimes think that we are primarily made up of journalism majors, to more accurately be a voice for this campus, we need staff members from different majors, years and areas of campus.

No matter how much or little experience you have, we are happy to teach people what we know and help them as they embark on the field of journalism.

So I encourage anyone curious about The Daily Eastern News to come by Thursday to our stand when going by the Food Court. I look forward to the conversations and feedback that follow.

Cassie Buchman is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or cjbuchman@eiu.edu.