Bascom Hill is alive with the sound of journalism, a management column

State street is bustling, Memorial Union Terrace is packed and the University of Wisconsin-Madison is alive with the sound of journalism. Which is a nice way of saying we made it, yet again, to another first day of class (FDOC as known on the streets). 

For three months, this campus was a ghost town populated by 12 graduate students, multiple very confused summer orientation families looking for a non-heart-straining way up Bascom Hill and whoever was brave enough to still jump in the lake even though it looked like toxic sludge. Now, overnight, there are 45,000 of you and State Street sounds less like a sleepy Midwestern avenue and more like a marching band warming up in a parking garage. 

And it's not just the noise — it's the energy. U-Hauls are double-parked on every street bordering campus, unloading enough mini-fridges to stock a small Culver's. Somewhere, a parent is nearly in tears saying goodbye outside a dorm, and somewhere else, a returning junior is walking past that exact scene completely unbothered, mostly because they're on their way to buy a couch off Facebook Marketplace for $20 that they will absolutely regret owning by October. Camp Randall is dusting off "Jump Around," Mifflin Street residents are already fielding noise complaints that haven't technically happened yet and somewhere out there, a freshman is asking for directions to Van Hise, which, respectfully, is a building that requires its own search party and possibly a park ranger.

We’ve missed this. We’ve missed the chaos of trying to cross Library Mall without getting run over by a bike, an e-scooter or, believe it or not, a Tesla throwing marijuana (yes that happened, read our coverage here). We’ve missed gaslighting ourselves into thinking the walk around Bascom was shorter than walking up it. We've missed the Terrace chairs being rearranged into increasingly ambitious formations by people who clearly have too much free time and not enough due dates yet.

No one has figured out the bus routes, but don’t worry they are really just a myth that we all mutually agree to participate in because riding around in circles with 100 mouth breathers has to be better than walking in the Wisconsin snow. And let’s be honest, the 80, while convenient, is also just a cesspool for 10 different bacterial viruses at any given moment. 

A friendly programming note, for the freshmen especially: enjoy this weather while it lasts. Right now Madison is doing its very best impression of a place with a pleasant climate — Terrace weather, lake weather, "let's eat outside" weather. This will last approximately eleven weeks. Somewhere around late October, the wind off Lake Mendota will personally insult you, and by February you will understand, in your bones, why every building on this campus should be connected by a tunnel system. Buy the good coat now. Buy it big enough to layer under. Future you, sprinting across East Campus Mall in a windchill advisory, will send present you a thank-you card.

For those of you who don't know us yet — hi, we're your Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor this year, which mostly means we're the two people most likely to be found in the Cardinal office at 1 a.m. arguing about a headline, an em dash or whether "Terrace" needs a capital T (it does, we checked). Running a 130-plus-year-old student newspaper is a strange kind of honor: we get to spend our year being nosy on your behalf, showing up to the meetings you don't have time for, filing the records requests you didn't know you could file and generally making sure your knowledge of the world doesn't just come from Badger Barstool. We take that seriously. We also take approximately zero days off, but that one's on us.

We've been doing this since 1892 (The Cardinal we mean, not us personally…. Oh dear no), which means the Cardinal has now outlived several U.S. presidents, at least one campus building and countless attempts to replace print journalism with something "more efficient." We're still here. We still care. Read the paper. Yell at us about it if you want. Comment on our social medias as much as you’d like, we just ask that you…..read the articles first? Safe to say we aren’t going anywhere, though. 

As a matter of fact, you’re about to see a whole lot more of us. Start checking the stands every Thursday because we’ve upgraded. The Daily Cardinal is officially returning to weekly print for the first time in six years. Whether you need to get up to date on elections, you’re curious about upcoming events or you just want to solve a crossword (now included in every print edition!), the Cardinal is at your disposal at the very agreeable price of $0. 

Welcome back. Or, if this is your first time: welcome. You're going to lose an umbrella, gain a caffeine dependency and eventually develop strong, unshakeable opinions about which dining hall's stir-fry station is superior (and it’s Monday nights at Gordon’s btw). That's Madison, and that's us. 

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