Happy second week of the spring semester, Pioneers! We hope your first week of classes went well and that you are excited for the semester, especially since we got some amazing news this past week.

As covered in the news section this week, provost Michael Soto announced that the university will be switching to the Learning Management System (LMS) Canvas in the fall, with there being a pilot program for some classes this semester. We have covered issues with Schoology in the past, the previous LMS pilot programs, and are excited for the change as much as you are, but we urge you to be patient with the university as it makes this change. No change is easy or perfect. If you are in a class with the pilot, please take advantage of this opportunity and tell the university what is and is not working with the system; they will not be able to improve anything if they are not aware of problems. 

Additionally, Soto announced that all full-time on-ground students will have a bus pass for the Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) buses in the fall, something that so many students and organizations have been trying to make happen for a long time. We apologize to the seniors that are graduating this semester who will not get this luxury and also urge students to be patient with this change as well. There are many of us on our staff who will never get to take advantage of the pass system, and while it is a bummer, there’s nothing we can do about it.

Since the university has never had a program with the PRT, other than weekend discounts, there are bound to be some hiccups, once it is instituted, but hopefully a lot is sorted out since there was a pilot program for the bus passes in the fall semester. 

As a newspaper, we strive to cover not only the issues happening throughout campus, but the positive things as well, which this certainly is. We appreciate the university for working on these efforts and are excited to see ideas in the works for a long time come into fruition. We hope you are too.