Dear readers,
Welcome to the 2025-26 school year, and more importantly, welcome home to Fort Collins! Whether you are an incoming senior like myself, returning to campus with a bittersweet lump in your throat as you look ahead to all of the first lasts and last firsts in the coming months, a brand new Ram moving into a dorm, looking ahead to the school year with nerves and anticipation, or even if you’re somewhere in the middle, we welcome you back to campus. We’ll be here for all of you, through all of it.
My name is Allie Seibel, and this is my third time sitting down to write one of these welcome letters — a Collegian tradition in which the editor in chief takes some time to welcome the students of Colorado State University back to school in our first print edition.
The Collegian has been the student newspaper of Colorado State University since 1891 and has been independent since 2008, when a First Amendment incident on campus led to the creation of Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation, a not-for-profit media company that employs students to provide educational media experience.
If you’re curious about that aforementioned First Amendment incident, look it up; it made international headlines, but it also allowed The Collegian the opportunity to operate without any university oversight, which means we can publish whatever we want. We still have a positive working relationship with the university and departments on campus, work out of the Lory Student Center and consider it our primary mission to cover life at CSU.
The Collegian is a campus mainstay, a guidepost for information, a watchdog over the university and local government and a trusted news source by members of the Fort Collins and CSU communities. We take our role and legacy very seriously, especially amid the growing national distrust in the press, and you have my commitment to fair, free, accurate and unbiased journalism year-round.
If you’re interested, even passingly, in writing, photography, media or journalism, we invite you to join us. No experience is necessary, and we train reporters from the ground up all throughout the fall semester. Being a reporter for The Collegian is a flexible role, and all articles are compensated at a freelance rate. If you’ve ever wanted to be sideline at a sporting event, be on the frontlines of breaking news, be in the media section of a concert or air your opinions in a column, The Collegian might be the experience for you.
This will be my third year as editor in chief, and as someone who has seen, reported on and responded to a wide variety of news over three — and soon to be four — years at this publication, I can confidently say that college is the most altering time in your young life — something that I’ve witnessed both through my own journey and others’. I look back on myself that first year, reading this letter from our then-editor in chief while moving into Academic Village, nervous and passionate and wide eyed about conquering this campus as a fresh-faced news editor at The Collegian — a role I stumbled into before I had even been on campus as a full-time student — with fondness.
That first-year me and the me I am now represent a metamorphosis that I can thoroughly credit to the education and experiences at CSU and The Collegian.
While there might be stress lines on my face that didn’t exist before — and will almost certainly be on yours by the time you reach your final year on this campus as well — there are also smile lines that didn’t exist before. I certainly hope that when you reach this point in your college careers, you can see the increased smile lines as well.
I count myself immensely lucky to notice that I carry myself with more poise, strength and pride than I did at 18, that I speak louder and clearer and fight for what I believe in even when I’m scared — something that first-year me would have probably perished at the thought of. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a position of influence over the campus conversation for two years, and it has taught me the importance of student voices, the student experience and the potential each and every person has to find themself at CSU. Moreover, I understand myself better than I ever could have imagined at the beginning of this journey, and after all, that is what this crazy, wild hurricane of college is all about.
For me, I found that growth through The Collegian. But as we enter this new school year, my wish for each and every one of you is that you find your place of growth, whether it’s in the classroom, in a lab, out in nature, tucked among the shops and restaurants of Old Town or in a campus office or club. I hope you find the place of belonging that sets your soul on fire and shapes, grows and changes everything for you, whether that be academically based or not.
This campus and community is beautiful, messy, challenging, flawed, growing, loving and unique. It’s become my college home, and so, as we all begin, allow me to be one of the first to welcome all 34,000 and more of you home.
If you ever want to discuss The Collegian‘s coverage, share story tips or get involved in any way, don’t hesitate to reach out to editor@collegian.com.
