A good friend of mine, who graduated last year, was perusing a copy of the first Tech Talk of this quarter, when he brought something to my attention worth sharing.

The Tech Talk sports a motto that reads: "The student voice of Louisiana Tech University."

This particular friend said "Man, this is the only thing about the new Tech Talk that isn't good."

Funny that he would focus on something like that, but it makes you think.

Do students feel represented by this newspaper?

His answer was no. He wanted something done, and wrote what he called "innumerable" letters to the editor before graduating, which were never run.

To him, the motto is a lie, and he told me so. I don't believe it, though.

I stand behind those words.

This friend's topic of choice was smoking. The SGA voted to ban smoking inside campus buildings. That was a bad thing, to him, and needed to be dealt with.

He is a smoker, and won't quit for anybody.

Regardless of his opinion, which is honest and valid, I still call this newspaper "the student voice" proudly.

Last year, we at The Tech Talk were presented with a similar dilemma along a different line.

A specific person, who shall remain nameless, wrote letters to us about allowing non-journalism students to write for The Tech Talk.

The question comes up time and again, depending on how many truly active readers and socially conscious people take an interest each quarter.

It isn't a bad idea at all. In fact, a few people have already written for us this year.

They have written me letters to the editor, which I have happily run, with a few exceptions for reasons of having too many on the same topic.

If you have a problem that concerns all of us, the student body needs to hear about it.

If for no other reason than for your own peace of mind, the point of a letter to the editor is, as far as I see it, to let us know what you think of the newspaper, the campus, the world and so on.

I challenge those of you who may not believe the newspaper speaks for you to turn your ideas into a cohesive letter and send it across my desk, or into my e-mail.

Every week since the beginning of my career with this newspaper, there has been a page that goes to you guys. It's called Back Talk; you may be familiar with it.

My point is not to belittle you, but to admonish you.

Write me a letter.

Nick Todaro is a senior journalism major from Shreveport and serves as the editor for The Tech Talk. E-mail comments to nst005@latech.edu