Hello all you Frosh out there! This is usually the part of the paper where I get to rant and rave about what ever I feel like as well as answer any letters we have received. But since this is your first issue of The Hibou I thought I should tell you a little bit about myself as well as this paper.

I know, I know... The Hibou seems like a strange name for the student newspaper so let me explain. If you've seen the University's coat of arms (which I hope you have) you will notice the owl prominently displayed. "Hibou" is French for Owl, and thus you have The Hibou. That wasn't so complicated now was it? Do you have a better story?

The Hibou has existed since before Nipissing received its charter as a University. Believe me, I have the issues in the office to prove it. The Hibou is Nipissing's Official Student Newspaper. It is run by the students, for the students.

I myself hold the position of Editor-in-Chief and I am also a fourth year English/History major. This is my third year with The Hibou and in previous years I held the position of Entertainment Advisor. To put it briefly it's my job to find stories, motivate our writers into covering the stories and ensuring that the articles are handed in on time. I also set up interviews with bands, writers, professors, etc. This year my Number 1 goal is to find more writers. We publish 12 issues annually and each issue contains an average of 30 articles, so the more writers the better.

The rest of the staff is incomplete so far but let me introduce you to those who do already hold positions. Rhiannon Don holds the position of Layout Editor. Again, briefly she is in charge of putting all of the articles into a newspaper format on disk to be shipped off to The North Bay Nugget to be printed. She also maintains The Hibou website, which is posted in every issue of the paper as well as writing her own articles and merciless copy editing.

Ronnie Corporon has been with The Hibou the since he began at Nipissing. He holds the position of Copy Editor. He reads all of the articles for spelling errors, grammatical errors, typos etc. He also lends the two of us a hand when he's not to busy contributing his own articles.

That leaves the jobs of Advertising/Business Editor and another Copy Editor open so if you're interested, let us know.

Last but not least are our bosses. The Hibou is run through N.U.S.U., and so our sixth and final editor is Brock Leighton, N.U.S.U. President. Brock is the last person to look at the paper before it is sent to print.

The Hibou has earned the respect of the student at N.U. and the faculty alike. We offer you a newspaper with a mix of quality news articles that affect you, entertainment articles, opinion articles, creative articles and educational articles.

If you are interested in writing for the paper, working for the paper or you just want to let us know how we are doing, you can get in touch with us four ways: email us at thehibou@hotmail.com, check out our website at http://thehibou.tripod.com, call us at 474-340 ext. 4356 or stop by our office located in the Treehouse.