Maybe it’s the change in the temperature, the sense that the days are getting shorter or a conditioned behavior instilled in us from the days of plastic lunchboxes and penny loafers that eases the transition from the beach to the classroom. Just look around the campus during the first weeks of school and you’d think you wandered onto another campus. The quad outside the Student Center is not only filled with students, but notice they are actually smiling, a pleasant change from the sour face that many students and faculty have dubbed a staple of the typical Hofstra student. Even club members return after their summer hiatus with a noticeably optimistic outlook on their plans for the upcoming year. It’s as if all that exposure to the sun made them forget how exhausted and bogged down they were with their overbooked schedules only three months ago. Even the faculty know they must savor these beginning weeks of classes, when the empty desks are few and students actually look well-rested and eager to learn. Throughout the campus, there is a sense that “This will be the year that things will be different. This will be the year that… I improve my grades…. the basketball team will go all the way…. students will attend campus events in record numbers…my club will win an award” or whatever mini-goal you have set for the year, big or small. Maybe, you just want to make it to class this semester. But then, just as the leaves begin to change colors, students’ resolves will begin to fade, and the dreams that were so much alive in September die as quickly as most people’s New Year’s Resolutions. It was only five years ago, many of us, along with students and teachers at schools across the country returned from their summer vacations with similar ambitions and hopes for the upcoming academic year. Yet, before anyone had a chance to even figure out their class schedule, we were all hit with a sobering dose of reality. The attacks on the morning of September 11th, brought the world to its knees and quickly replaced hope with fear and confidence with confusion and insecurity. The saying that “the world was changed that day” has echoed throughout classrooms, the media, our political leaders and almost everyone who was alive to witness 9/11. This is true; the entire world continues to experience the consequences. Looking back at the dark place we were in five years ago as we watched the horrific scenes unfold on television or in our own backyards, which is the case for many local students who can recall looking outside their classroom windows and seeing the cloud of smoke mar the New York skyline, we’ve come pretty far. There may still be a gaping hole where what once symbolized the strength of this nation once stood, but the true strength of this country was never destroyed, only badly bruised. This week throughout campus, the University memorialized those lives that were lost on 9/11, including a number of members of the Hofstra community. These gestures are nice, but not enough. Pausing two times, once a year, to remember the dead, will not bring them back nor will it rid the world of the evil that lead to their demise. Instead, focus that energy to making this world a little better, or atleast this campus. Whatever that spark of excitement is that each one us brings to campus in the fall, don’t let it die. Sure, it’s easy to feel refreshed after three months of vacation, you’re more likely to flash a smile to a stranger on the Unispan or introduce yourself to someone in class when you’re not running on three hours of sleep and you’re more likely to appreciate Hofstra after a period of withdrawal. But when the snow starts hitting the ground, parking anywhere on campus becomes a feat and the work starts piling up, that attitudes start to wither, student participation drops and the campus becomes more deserted. Just imagine, if this campus community remained as vibrant of a social network as Facebook throughout the year. What if student enrollment in on-campus clubs was as large as some of the ridiculous groups created on the site? Many students complain that nothing exciting ever happens on campus, when in actuality the problem may be that there is so much happening on campus that it is hard to keep track of and make sense of it all. Perhaps, a mini-feed of the activities on campus would be valuable. Well, we’ll do our best to keep you informed and interested throughout the year. All you have to do is stop “poking” your long-lost high school sweetheart and start poking your nose into what’s going on around campus and maybe together we can even make some things change for the better.