The most common complaint I hear about the Daily Bruin is that
it’s not really a student paper. “It never covers
anything I care about,” moaned one student. “It’s
too uptight,” griped another, “It just doesn’t
seem very “˜collegey.’ So many of the stories
aren’t even written by UCLA students.”
To make it clear once and for all, I apologize to those of you
who feel the Bruin doesn’t live up to your expectations. But
more than that, I encourage you to help us improve. I can assure
you that no one on campus wants to see the Bruin become its best
more than those of us who work here.
So write in. Share your opinion on a topic one of our columnists
or reporters covered, let us know of an upcoming event that
you’d like us to cover, give us constructive criticism about
the paper itself, or tell us about your woes with the
administration. If you’re frustrated that you spend more time
on your two-unit lab class than your five-unit humanities course,
we’re here to complain to! On the other hand, if you love
this university and want to say why, it would make my day.
Unrealized by many, we publish positive comments, too.
In comparison to the community it serves, the Bruin staff is
very small, especially given that we spend a disproportionate
amount of our college careers in these windowless cubicles. Try as
we may, we do miss some of the events and opinions that can be
found here on campus. It isn’t intentional, however, and with
your help we can definitely have a more reflective spectrum of
coverage. We’re happy to take opinions on any topic, whether
it was something we covered in news, Viewpoint or something
new.
I just wish I had known that two years ago; I delayed my
application to the Bruin for six months because one of the
editorials offended me so much. I now realize my anger was
misguided; I should’ve instead written in and explained
exactly why that editorial was wrong. It had missed a number of
important arguments and facts, and I know I could’ve provided
the UCLA community with a much more thorough view of the issue if I
had written in.
If you’re in my previous situation, don’t hesitate
the way I did. Not only will you feel better when your letter is
published, but the new information you provide could have a huge
impact. Say a news article missed an important argument against a
particular proposition, but you wrote in about the missing argument
and swayed a whole group of voters to reject the proposition.
You’d feel pretty good, wouldn’t you?
Depending on your available time, you can either write a short,
pithy letter to the editor or a longer submission where you will
have a chance to fully explain your views. We’re happy to
take something of any length.
Also, rather than saying mean things to our columnists as they
walk through campus, take the higher road and inform me if you
disagree with their views ““ your feelings could be much
better expressed as a written argument in our paper than as an
insult to the columnist.
We’re here for you to express your opinions, and I really
hope you take advantage of it.
Honigsberg is the 2004-2005 Viewpoint editor.