Editorial License

For many of us, winter is a time of renewal and reflection, the season when we take stock, step back, think about the big picture and how we can best manifest our dreams. We find ourselves examining our motives, dissecting our decisions, all in a heartfelt effort to do whatever we can to finally become our best selves.

Blame it on the holidays, if you will. Or perhaps there’s something about winter’s slower pace and shorter days that lends itself to introspection. Maybe the quest for a new beginning is simply about the birth of the new year. But whatever the impetus for such seasonal self-examination, the end result can — like spring itself — be a true rebirth. Don’t believe me? Just ask Socrates. He’s the one who first pointed out that the unexamined life isn’t worth living.

Toward that end, we’ve been doing some soul-searching here at USD Magazine. We’re thinking about where we’ve been, where we’re going, how to best serve the mission of the university, and how to offer up a magazine that every reader will devour from cover to cover.

There’s a lot going on at Alcalá Park every single day, and to try to even attempt to cover it all in a quarterly magazine would be madness. Since we’re not crazy, we’re not even going to try. Instead, we’ve started a Web log (“blog”) in an effort to capture all the small moments that add up to something so much bigger here at USD. You can find the twice-weekly musings of Kelly Phillips at www.sandiego.edu/publications/blog. And, as always, please keep us posted on what you think of our efforts, whether in the blogosphere or on the page; drop an e-mail or send a missive via the post office.

We expect you’ll have plenty to say about this issue: From our feature story that follows an anthropology professor with a somewhat unorthodox teaching style, to our profile of a local hero and “bulldog for the underdog,” to our cover story that spotlights both students and what’s been called the newest “crown jewel” of the university, we’ve done our best to walk the fine line between focus and eclecticism.

Of course, we’re not done with our great soul-searching mission. Perhaps we never will be. But one thing we do know for sure is that we’ll be coming up with more changes to the magazine in the months to come, and we want to know what you think. Whether it’s more sports or more history, longer class notes or a larger type size, let us know what you’d like us to cover in these pages.

Because there’s one thing we know for sure and for certain: Without you, we’re nothing.

Julene Snyder
Editor, USD Magazine