Editor's Letter

Dear Readers,

The past month has been a whirlwind. The Munch has acquired vital, new members to its team and is expanding quite well. We have a new layout editor, Sam Blum, who jumped right into semester head first and is now turning out a fresh, layout scheme. In addition, you'll be seeing more action shots in the paper now that we have a photographer, Alk Thompson. When you walk into Rudy's Café, it's near impossible to miss The Munch under its bright, new labels on the wire racks. You can find our link on UNet and on the Smith website, as well.

As I was thinking about all these improvements over the past month, I started to wonder how everything was coming together. Queue in the trite answer: teamwork.  Honestly, without my team answering e-mails sometimes 4-5 times in a day and bringing their passion to the brainstorming table, none of this could have been done with such ease or enthusiasm. After thinking about teams, I began to realize how many classes of mine involved teamwork. Literally, all but one involved a team project of some sort. My 390h class did individual presentations last night in hopes of attracting classmates to their idea and therefore to their team. Some of the projects were based on health or community, others on green technology or ways to avoid traffic. My English class is working on proposals to improve the Quality of life at UMD.  In addition, I sat in on a team meeting last week with a previous SUSA president, Jesse Chen, the Class reps, and Vp of Admin Chris Coraggio.  The point is, teamwork never produces a lame idea or a unenthusiastic crowd. 

Now, you might be thinking, what about Comm107? Because that's what I thought when we talked about this same ‘team' subject in my Mentoring class. Obviously, working with people can result in negativity if the conflict is based on individual's character. However, if that is the case, there is no team present, only a group of people. And the difference is this; groups have to, teams want to. So, whatever endeavor you're tackling this semester; a new club or a class project, make sure you are passionate about it. Life's too short to work toward anything besides what you truly want.