To those of you who are reading The Daily for the very first time: congratulations. You have taken the first of many steps in what will undoubtedly be an amazing four years of your life here at Stanford. While a dizzying array of new faces and opportunities whirl by, you took the time to sit down and read a few lines about the goings on of this crazy place. This seemingly innocuous act of relaxation is actually something much greater. What you are doing is investing in your budding stay on the Farm. What you are doing is giving a damn.

As you will no doubt come to discover, if you haven’t already, there are limitless things to do on campus, with four years rightly feeling too short to fit even half of it all in. With all this raging about you, it is easy to get caught up in your student group, your sorority, your major or your sports team. It is easy to not pay attention to student government, changes in housing policies or the status of alumni fundraising.  It is very easy to pass by demonstrators in White Plaza without once thinking about the issues for which they stand. And it takes literally no effort to walk by the table with the stack of Daily issues and not think twice.

You, however, did. And for the rest of your time on the Farm, we hope you will continue to pick up The Daily and take the time to think and talk about the events that are shaping the school — because this effort on your part helps ensure the vibrancy that makes Stanford one of the world’s premier institutions of higher learning. A public dialogue, even at times rancorous and emotional, is the very foundation of the academy.  By keeping up to date on Stanford sports and news, you are able to participate in and shape that dialogue.

It is not difficult to argue that many of the issues covered in these pages simply do not matter, that changes in dining or Residential Education do not impact your life in the slightest.  Particularly when the sun is shining on the palms dotting the Quad, or when that 20-pager is rapidly coming due, it’s difficult to disagree. Leaving boring meetings and dense readings to others feels like a pretty solid decision to make. And with good people in the ASSU, admission, the office of the vice provost for undergraduate education, and departmental front desks, why worry?

There are many well-intentioned students and staffers on this campus whose interests lie with improving Stanford for you and everyone else. But odds are sometime in the next four years, they will make a decision or take a stand with which you would disagree. But when you do not keep reading and thinking about Stanford, it doesn’t really matter what you think. For good or ill, you are putting your college experience in the hands of folks you do not know, whom you will not meet and who never may have the chance to hear out your concerns.  You become a passive player in four of the more absurd years of your life.

So give a damn.  Take the time to try and understand how this place works, to get to know the candidates for student government, to ask your RA and the dining hall manager about their positions and their interests. Read The Daily. It matters less whether or not you agree with what has been written. It matters more that you are paying attention.

Oh, and go Cardinal Football.