My name is Ben Cohn.

I am the president of my fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Inter-fraternity Council Vice President of Finance, and the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the Informer for the 2013-2014 school year. I am all these positions, and I will only be a junior next year.

If someone had told me a year ago that I would have all these positions in the future, I would have called them crazy. As a Communication major with an emphasis in Public Relations/Advertising and Media/Journalism, I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do with my life.

At first, I always wanted to be a TV reporter, however I realized it wasn’t something that I enjoyed as much as I thought it would be.

That is when I turned to print journalism, and found that I enjoyed it a lot.

At the end of my freshman year, I was appointed the position of Copy Chief for the Informer this current year.

Due to circumstances that happened towards the end of last semester, I was asked to fill the void of Campus Life & Culture Editor, which I gladly accepted. I knew this would be difficult, but I felt it would be a great challenge for me.

As the year went on, I found myself learning more about journalism, and improving in my writing and editing skills. While I had a goal to eventually become Editor-In-Chief of the Informer, I didn’t think I’d be able to have the chance until my senior year.

However, an opportunity presented itself and I grabbed the bulls by the horn and was appointed to be next year’s Editor-In-Chief by my fellow colleagues.

I felt honored by the appointment and I vowed that I would keep the name of the Informer in high regards.

Now I could go on about my life, but I want to share with the readers out there what I’m going to do as Editor-in-Chief and what I’m going to do differently.

First off, there has been this notion that no one reads the Informer. I will admit, there are definitely people out there who don’t read it. However, there are more people that read the paper than you think. Plenty of times this year, people have gone up to me recognizing me from the paper or commenting on one of my stories.

Since I know there are people who read the Informer, even if people don’t want to admit, it is my job, along with my staffs, to provide you with all news regarding the University.

Therefore, I will be doing my best to make stories more about the students and faculty. If anyone has a story idea, or wants their voices heard, I urge them to email me at bcohn@hartford.edu.

We will also be adding a, “Letter to the Editor” section where anyone can email me a letter and have it placed in the Informer. It is time for the students voices to be heard, and as Editor-in-Chief, I want people to have a say.

Another thing I will be changing about the Informer is the design and layout.

A picture is worth a thousands words and I know people don’t like to read a long article. I will be working my best to make the paper more visually attractive for students to read.

For our online edition, along with the majority of articles will be a link to a Tout, taken by our reporters.

Tout is an application, available on smartphones and tablets, where someone can take a 15 second video and post it online. When the account is created, I urge everyone to follow our Tout page so they can get a glimpse of the event being covered.

If anyone wants more information on what changes I will be making with the Informer, please email me or come into the Informer office and I will gladly sit down and talk.

It is time for the students voices to be heard again, and as Editor-in-Chief, I will make it happen.