I have a theory about stress in college: secretly, we all love the pressure.
We love the drama behind studying at all hours for finals; we love complaining about our classes and the relentless conversations discussing how late we’ve been up the night before. We love cramming it all in, while balancing a social life and trekking down to the neighborhood bars, even if we’ve had a trying day.
It’s the excitement that fuels us, provides something to talk about and unites us as college students. And let me tell you, I really love the drama.
The Daily Bruin is my own personal stress-filled world of calling sources, calling writers, attending meetings, talking to administrators, rushing to classes and meeting deadlines.
I love it so much, I want to transform it this year. I want to help make it better, and I want you to notice.
The Bruin staff has a lot of big plans for you to look for. To begin with, we’re hoping to reinvent the culture of the paper, making it more personal and more accessible to readers. We’re brainstorming ways to improve our content, making it more interesting and trying new types of story formats.
Big changes are taking place on our campus, altering the structure of our university and limiting some of the resources available to us. Budget cuts have closed Night Powell and our student fees have increased, for instance. But besides the cut and dry hard news that is necessary in any newspaper, we are also looking to learn and tell the stories of individual students.
We want to tell your story.
We want you to be able to find yourself in and relate to our coverage, understanding the bigger picture of campus news, and why it’s important.
An increased number of graphics will be used this year to spice up our stories in a more visible, reader-friendly way. More prominent use of graphics in News is especially helpful when stories become saturated with facts and details ““ take a look at some of our stories in this issue for examples.
We’re launching a new Web site ““ the labor of love of our Editor-in-Chief, Alene Tchekmedyian. There you can find a new “Editors’ Blog,” where you’ll be able to read about the types of issues we as editors face every single day.
Please feel comfortable reaching out to the Daily Bruin News team ““ composed of myself and five other assistant news editors, along with dozens of reporters .
We’re looking to change how we interact with UCLA, and we’re hoping to redefine the presence of our newspaper on campus. Let the Bruin be a source for you to keep up with such day to day news.
You’re welcome to visit us at the Daily Bruin office at any time to give us a tip. We’re just a short jaunt off Bruin Walk, housed in 118 Kerckhoff. The office is directly behind the large doors above the Kerckhoff steps.
We spend a lot of time in this office, and at all hours of the night there is likely someone working on a layout, editing or simply hanging out. Bruin staffers eat, sleep, study, stress and labor in that office with a staff of about 400 other students to bring you the news ““ every single weekday.
As we continue to work, I’m hoping that you’ll notice the changes that our team will introduce to the paper this year.
Visit the new Web site, comment on our stories and notice the updates to news throughout the day. Consider making the Daily Bruin your personal home page, refreshing you with the news as it happens.
McGough is the 2009-2010 News Editor. Have a tip? E-mail her at cmcgough@media.ucla.edu.