Recording the history of your college life
By Shaun Bishop
Sept. 24, 2005 9:00 p.m.
This is the only time my picture will be in the paper this
year.
So remember it. Because if we ever meet, and I have to remind
you where I work, you’ll probably give me “the
look.”
Perhaps you’ve experienced the look.
The “maybe I shouldn’t be talking to you, because
you’re out to get me, and might run a huge story about that
one night I was drunk and totally ruin my life!” look.
What, just me?
As I was (struggling) to write this column, a colleague of mine,
who may or may not have a column to the right of this one,
suggested I write about what a big, bad news editor I am. About how
I’m the gatekeeper of the news, the king of information.
But the Daily Bruin is not out to get you, and neither am I. In
fact, I think UCLA and its students are pretty interesting.
UCLA’s got red brick, green hills and modern yet historic
buildings.
It’s smack in the middle of Los Angeles, the biggest, most
diverse city in the most powerful state in the most powerful
country in the world. It’s got the best athletics program,
some of the top researchers and academic programs, and, not
surprisingly, the most applicants in the country.
It’s big enough to have all of these things, and yet has
so many intricacies that it’s small enough for each member of
its enormous community.
That’s not to say Bruinland is all 8-claps and homecoming
parades.
Students are identified often solely by a nine-digit number and
routinely sit as faceless members of large lecture halls, inputting
piles of information and outputting papers and student fees.
UCLA has problems with diversity, construction, parking, student
apathy, traffic, housing, and, of course, funding.
And we’re charged with keeping track of it all, to show
the world ““ and UCLA itself ““ what a place it is.
Whew.
The Daily Bruin news section is the first draft of UCLA history.
Producing it is an awesome responsibility, and one that none of us
take lightly. We understand how important it is that you know where
to go when you need information that affects your life at UCLA, the
truth about what’s happening on and around campus.
And while we’re on the subject of truth, I’m going
to be honest ““ I’m kind of an idealist.
I like to think that UCLA students care about what’s going
on around them, that they’re not too caught up in trying to
get that B+ in o-chem to step back and take a good look at the
university they attend. I like to think our basketball team will
make it to “deep March” this year (and I like to think
I didn’t bet $80 on that one particularly late night). And of
course, I like to think that there are a few of you out there who
read the Bruin, and I’m not talking about yesterday’s
crossword puzzle answers.
What you’re reading now is me writing not as a journalist
or an editor, but in a way I hadn’t yet been able to in the
pages of Bruin ““ as a student. I study, I work, I get
stressed, I have fun just like most UCLA students. My work just
happens to be capturing UCLA, finding out what matters to our
readers, and giving them the best information possible that they
might be more informed about the decisions they make and events
they experience.
In other words, we work to show how our readers, like you and I,
fit into this metropolis of a university.
Here’s to putting together the puzzle.
Bishop is the 2005-2006 news editor, and has soft brown
eyes. E-mail him at [email protected].
