Daily Bruin won’t treat you like a lemur

Do you know what a lemur is? It’s a type of primate: many
of them are endangered. And not many people are interested in
saving the lemurs, mainly because most people don’t know
about them.

People know about the giant panda, the whales and the cheetahs
because of the volume of publicity they get in the media.

But who cares about the lemur?

Well, students are a lot like the lemur.

Why are they monkey-like? Because there are a lot of people who
don’t really care about students here at UCLA. You’re
not special to “them.”

It’s probably harder for freshmen who haven’t yet
really experienced what it’s like to live at UCLA for a
prolonged period to believe this.

But I advise them to go to Murphy Hall next time they need to
pay their registration fees; the first thing they’ll ask for
is not your name, but your identification number.

Look around your dorm room; it represents nothing more than how
a computer slotted you among the hundreds of cubicle rooms in the
residence hall buildings.

Go eat dinner: you’ll suddenly realize you are only one in
a five hundred people rushing toward the mysterious meat meals.

Go to class and see if you can outrun 350 people to get to the
front of the classroom and talk to the professor before he goes
back to his research.

Call the Financial Aid Office’s number and try to talk to
a person.

Even better, try to talk to the Chancellor.

It’s not that “they” consciously try to not
care about you, the student; they can’t. To
“them,” there are 35,000 of you and there’s just
no time to care for every individual.

But before you resign yourself to the same neglect-induced
melancholic stupor the lemurs are now in, remember you have an
advantage over the plight-laden prosimians.

Us.

The fact you’re often ignored is the monkey on our back;
and this year, we’ll work our best to get it off ““ in a
number of ways.

The various entities affiliated with this university ““ the
administration, the Associated Students of UCLA, academic
departments, the University of California Board of Regents, the
Housing Office and student government ““ are all here to serve
you, and we will hold them accountable through our news coverage to
make sure they do.

This year at the Bruin, we will all strive to publish a paper
that first and foremost serves you, the student. We will give you
information about all policy changes at the UCLA and UC level that
can potentially affect your educational, living and social
environment. We are not afraid to speak the truth because we
realize the opinion of every one of you matters, even if others
don’t think so.

The Bruin’s Viewpoint section is our public forum for you
to directly engage the university and your peers with opinions and
ideas for change.

By the way, The Bruin doesn’t have a double standard on
accountability. Feel free to come in to our office and talk to us
whenever you have a concern about our coverage in any section;
we’re here for you, not for us.

At the same time, realize we’re also students and will
make some mistakes once in a while; however, rest assured we will
minimize this as much as possible, always incorporating your
feedback into our learning process.

Aside from keeping you in touch with the university and its
issues, though, we also strive to entertain you with our Sports and
Arts & Entertainment coverage. We hope this will help give
students a sense of community ““ and thus, a sense of
importance and meaning ““ by sharing with everyone the various
forms of athletic and artistic involvement at the university.

As much as we’ll try to inform and entertain you, we
can’t do everything for you. Once we give you the necessary
information, it’s up to you to use it and foment change if
you feel it necessary. Believe me, if you don’t get involved
with your education and in meaningful extracurricular activities
now, you will resent it later.

All the lemurs are stuck on one island; don’t make UCLA
your prison too. Take charge. We’ll help you ““ and
that’s no monkey business.