Picture it. A red, white and blue top hat. That familiar glare. An old man, standing outside the revolving door at Norris University Center, his long finger extended your way:

I want YOU for The Daily Northwestern!

You guessed it: We’re reinstating the draft.

Hold on, now. Before you start heading for the hills of Montreal, let me clarify. You aren’t going to the front lines. You won’t even have to leave your dorm room. An exciting prospect for the passive-aggressive amongst us, no? Read on.

You will have to be a soldier of sorts. Not the kind waging a war against an axis of evildoers armed with weapons of mass destruction, but one wielding a different weapon.

As one of The Daily’s five Spring Quarter columnists, you’ll be a soldier trying to topple the forces of indifference, a private in an army of storytellers. One man or woman, fighting the good fight against a bevy of readers intent on finding that crossword puzzle as quickly as they can.

That’s right. It’s a nine-week war, fought in the trenches of the Forum page. So if you’re ready to trade in your bullets for some ink, keep reading.

We’re in search of a new face. If you have a perspective that you think belongs on this page, we want you. If you think the only things the Northwestern community has been lacking in its 152-year history is your voice, start writing. But a few words of advice to any potential enlistees:

We’re not looking for a chronology of America’s foreign policies; trust us, there are a few professors out there we can turn to for that. But if you can tell us, in around 550 words, why you think a war with Iraq is the answer to America’s prayers, what are you waiting for? Pick up a pen.

And we don’t need you to go to city hall every other week and chronicle the goings-on of the Evanston City Council — we have reporters for that, too. But if you’re a Music student and think you know the key to a harmonious relationship between NU and the council, let us hear it.

In short, we want five people who are ready to take risks, to insult the masses, to puzzle the civilians with witticisms and charm them with satire. We want columnists who can tell stories but convey messages.

This is your page. It’s your turn to tell the stories. So if you’re ready to venture past the security of The Arch, to enter the war zone of Evanston — or even the battleground of the big city — here’s what to do:

In the next week or so, sit down and tell us everything we’re doing wrong. That is, tell us what you would do if given free reign of the right column of this page for a day. Write down five or six original ideas and send them to us, along with ways you would turn those ideas into columns. Then, write two 550-word columns and include them in your application, along with a short biography — 130 words or so — about anything you want. E-mail all of it to [email protected] by Thursday, March 20. We’ll let you know by the end of the quarter.

So that’s it. This is your opportunity to show NU that you’re ready to take on the world. All from the comfort of that rolling computer chair.

Fall in, soldier.

Medill junior Campbell Roth will be Forum Editor in Spring Quarter. She can be reached at [email protected].