Gazing ahead

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Summer Wildcat Zach Thomas

What I did last summer...

These are famous first words for elementary schoolers worldwide and rookie college newspaper editors aren't exempt either.

Looking at this summer in retrospect, everything can be summed into two words: "Damn fast."

I believe that the Summer Wildcat senior staff and I agree on this point.

From a fiasco over fabricated quotes to Christopher City pesticide woes, the stifling Tucson summer has zipped along. A monstrous UA-Pepsi contract in June was followed by an even more monstrous Wildcat Campus Guide in late July. Renewed questions about CatCard security hit in June and by July, the Summer Wildcat even took readers inside a Vegas porn convention. Not bad for an editorial staff that began very green and concluded the term as seasoned editors. Big time kudos to you.

Through 10 editions and the constant quenching of small fires, I personally relearned what a team effort really entails - and gained about 10 pounds in the process. I'm thinking it might have been the Cafe Sonora enchiladas or the Domino's cheesy-bread. Suffice it to say, I may start bringing lunch as my editorial term continues this fall.

And speaking of the autumn, exhaustive campus news coverage is again coming your way as fall staffers return from their summer hiatuses, reporting internships and general road-trip rambling. As I look down the roster, the fall Daily Wildcat arguably will have a more experienced reporting staff at the outset than during the past three years I have been with the paper.

Also debuting this fall is Catalyst, an all-new, student-produced arts and features magazine covering the campus area with everything from student artist profiles to off-beat wire stories to feature stories detailing the multi-sided reality (or surreality) of campus and Tucson-area arts. Look for it Aug. 27.

On the sports side, keep an eye out for the Daily Wildcat athlete of the week, a weekly profile of UA's best and brightest on the field, over the court, in the pool and on the track. In addition to regular game updates and features, the profiles will hopefully help bring fans closer to the UA's top-notch NCAA Division I athletes.

Also on-tap is an all-new Wildcat Special Projects team comprised of two senior reporters and a designer who will contribute proactive coverage and in-depth reporting away from the daily grind of the City Desk. Time constraints have in the past put long-term projects on the wayside in lieu of daily news coverage. No more. We'll now do them both... and do them both better.

Not to be outdone, Wildcat Webmaster Ryan Bond has been putting the finishing touches on a completely redesigned Wildcat Online site that will feature not only daily coverage, but campus- and Tucson-area resources as well. Starting Aug. 24, everything from movie times to campus-area eateries will be featured online at http://wc.arizona.edu.

It was a helluva summer and my gaze now falls to the autumn, which promises excitement on many fronts.

See you there.

Zach Thomas is editor in chief of the Arizona Summer Wildcat.