It's a trend at The Plainsman to start the summer semester expecting nothing to happen and end it feeling surprised so much has happened. This summer has been no different.
Admittedly, there have been a few weeks were we've struggled to find newsworthy content. The town of Auburn doesn't shut down during the summer, but it does seem to go in to a weird type of part-time hibernation.
Local businesses switch to summer hours; downtown is less lively on the weekend; and campus is like a ghost town. For those students who stay in town, more time is spent drinking by the pool or working than paying attention to the school that dominates the majority of their year.
But news doesn't take a summer vacation.
The Zimmerman trial, its subsequent fallout, and the scandal involving Paula Deen's alleged old-time racism have reinvigorated the national conversation on race. Both events are bleak reminders we are far from living in a post-racial society, no matter how much we wish it wasn't true.
Unfortunately, the news media has saturated every bit of its daily content with Zimmerman and other race-related topics, and it's almost maddening. These stories seem like nothing more than bottom-of-the barrel tidbits meant to illicit anger and drive up ratings.
However, exploitation of the racial divide has only been a small portion of this summer's news cycle.
One of the more dark chapters in the University's history finally came to a close with Dakota Mosley pleading guilty to the 2011 robbery at Conway Acres Trailer Park. Moseley, along with Shaun Kitchens, Mike McNeil and Antonio Goodwin, all former football players, have put a stain on the Auburn Family name, and it's good see them own up to their mistakes, even if it took a little legal cajoling.
The scandal they caused will last a lot longer than we want it to. Unfortunately, it also gives pseudo-journalists, such as Selena Roberts, ammunition in their misguided quest to expose the imaginary system of graft and corruption supposedly ruling the athletic department.
There have also been some positive news events this summer, events that made our job much more enjoyable and reminded us why we do what we do.
After a long battle with Dean Hardgrave and the College of Business administration, students and alumni with the aviation management program were able to save the Flight Program. We couldn't be happier this Auburn institution was not tossed by the wayside. It would have been damn near criminal to cheat Aviation students out of such a promising career for such trivial reasons.
We were also delighted to see the athletic department take some initiative and hire some coaches more likely to get us some wins, which we desperately need. It was unfortunate to se John Pawlowski and Tina Deese leave after all the hard work they put in, but it was time.
If the firing of Gene Chizik has taught us anything, it's that a coach has to be able lead his or her team to victory. No, we don't have to win a national championship every year - even though it would be nice - but losing so much they don't even get a chance to get a title is unacceptable.
We wish baseball coach Sunny Galloway and softball coach Clint Myers the best and hope they can help put us back on top, where we know we belong.
And we believe that can be said for the rest of Auburn as well.
We want to leave you this summer with a sense of hope. Although we tend to focus on the negative, which seems to dominate our paper some weeks, we genuinely believe the Auburn community is growing stronger.
So don't let the Varez Wards, Harvey Updykes, and Desmonte Leonards of the world bring you down, Auburn. Yes, they may be bad news now, but we are stronger and better than they will ever be, and that is why believe in Auburn and love it.
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