Thanks for picking up the paper

The Indiana Daily Student has always been a great college newspaper. This semester has been an exceptional one.\nThis semester has been very successful. We have affected IU policy, informed our readers, entertained the public and developed as journalists.\nOne of the proudest accomplishments is the effect I believe we've had on the IU community. We exposed problems with asbestos in several residence halls which led to changes in RPS policy. We revealed that Kumble Subbaswamy, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, was a candidate for the IU-Bloomington chancellor job. Shortly after the search was restarted, the faculty had an uproar about overlooking Subbaswamy. We printed photos depicting the IU Police Department response in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation parking lot and an internal investigation was launched.\nNot only have we affected policy, but we have also have affected our readers. We covered so many angles regarding Hurricane Katrina, including students who lost their homes and the Bloomington volunteers who reached out to them. With our coverage of the tornado disaster in Evansville, we reported on the scene how IU students were affected. We kept you up to date with IU sports, including a failed three-peat for soccer, improved morale for football and the beginning of a highly-anticipated basketball season.\nWe won several national awards including Best All-Around Daily Newspaper from the Society of Professional Journalists and Best in Show at the College Media Adviser Awards.\nNot everything has been perfect this semester, but no newspaper can claim perfection. Every day is another chance at getting it right and we hope you understand that the IDS is always a work in progress, as all newspapers are. Sometimes, there have been disagreements with our readers or within our staff about certain judgment calls. There can't always be a 100-percent consensus, but nothing has caused serious damage this semester.\nNot only do I think this semester has been amazing, but the readers have felt this way too. We have had a tremendous response from the IU community. Newsstands have been empty. The Web site has received tons of hits. \nWe appreciate the support and we urge you to continue picking up the IDS.\nWe always encourage your feedback, but we are currently taking an extra step to find out what our readers want. We are in the middle of a new readership survey that will poll the opinions of 500 readers to find out certain vital information. We use this to find out how many students actually read the paper, what types of readers we have and what sections they enjoy. We will use this information for several years until our next comprehensive readership survey. It will determine our advertising rates, circulation and editorial content. I won't be editor in chief next week. There will be a whole new staff to make all of our decisions. Still, this survey is your chance to have a real say in what we do for years to come.\nTo take our survey, log on to http://pulseresearch.com/iu. There are several prizes available just for taking the survey, including a $500 prize, a $250 prize, two $100 cash prizes and a $50 prize.\nWe hope the IDS has made some sort of difference this semester. It really has made a difference to me.