Daily Bruin
The Daily Bruin is the student newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles. It began publishing in 1919, the year UCLA was founded.
Type
The Daily Bruin distributes about 6,000 copies across campus each school day. It also publishes PRIME, a quarterly arts, culture and lifestyle magazine, and Bruinwalk.com, a professor, class and apartment review website.[2]
Frequency and governance[edit]
The Bruin was published Monday through Friday during the school year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, twice a week during the last week of the quarter, once a week during finals week, and once a week on Mondays in the summer quarter. As of the 2022-2023 school year, the Bruin is published three times a week during the school year on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The Bruin's staff also publishes PRIME, a quarterly lifestyle magazine, and maintains Bruinwalk.com, a professor and apartment review site.[3] The Daily Bruin produced a total of 2,419 articles in the 2021/2022 academic year.[4]
It is published by the ASUCLA Communications Board, which sets policies for the newspaper and other campus communications media. The current editor in chief is Isabelle Friedman.[5]
The Daily Bruin has 13 editorial departments: news writing, sports writing, arts & entertainment writing, opinion writing, blogging, infographic reporting, digital development, video journalism, copy editing, photojournalism, design, PRIME, enterprise reporting and cartoons and illustrations.[6]
Location[edit]
The Daily Bruin office and newsroom is located on the first floor of Kerckhoff Hall, Room 118.[7]
History[edit]
Nomenclature[edit]
The Daily Bruin was preceded by the weekly Normal Outlook on the campus of UCLA's predecessor, the Los Angeles State Normal School, from 1910 through 1918 or 1919 (the records are incomplete).[8]: 3–6
Upon the establishment in fall 1919 of the Southern Branch of the University of California, as UCLA was first known, the twice-weekly Cub Californian was first issued on Sept. 29, 1919. Its name was changed to the California Grizzly with the issue of March 21, 1924, and on Sept. 13, 1925 it began to publish five days a week.[8]: 7, 17, 19
On October 22, 1926, the newspaper became known as the California Daily Bruin.[9] During World War II it reduced its publication frequency to three times a week under the title California Bruin,[8]: 66 reverting to a daily publication at war's end. On April 2, 1948, the name was changed to UCLA Daily Bruin.[8]: 91, 92
Control[edit]
The newspaper has generally been under control of the student organization now known as the Associated Students UCLA, or ASUCLA, although during the summer sessions of the 1920s and 1930s the newspapers were used as laboratory papers for university journalism classes. A student body president in 1931 advocated that the Bruin be made independent from control by the ASUC, as it was known then, so it might act as a check on student government. In the 1950s, the Summer Bruin was again taken over by the Administration, and '"controversial social issues" were banned from print during the summers.[8]: 128–129 [10]
Until 1955, the Associated Students was considered the publisher of the Daily Bruin, sometimes directly under the student council and sometimes with the interposition of a Publications Board. Editors were named by the student council. This system resulted in frequent political struggles between the staff (which nominated candidates for the key editorial positions) and the student council.[8]: 50 and following
During the height of the McCarthy era, with the newspaper staff being accused of Communist leanings, the university administration in 1955 revised the governance of the paper and instituted a system whereby the student body itself elected the editor (see below).[8]: 144–145 "Editors had to run for elective office just like politicians, and the newspaper was closely controlled by the [student] Council," wrote William C. Ackerman, the ASUCLA graduate administrator.[11]
The practice of student election of editors ended in 1963 with the establishment of the ASUCLA Communications Board,[8]: 150 a student-led organization that selects the editors of the Bruin as well as the editors for the other seven newsmagazines and UCLA Radio.[12]
The 1920s[edit]
In 1926, editor John F. Cohee was expelled from school by Ernest Carroll Moore, the campus administrator and director, for what Moore called "certain indecent statements which affront the good name of the women of the University." These were apparently a tongue-in-cheek "report" that some sorority women had been seen cavorting nude in the Pacific Ocean surf.[8]: 25–32 This article was included in a twice-yearly burlesque edition of the Daily Bruin known as "Hell's Bells." (Cohee transferred to the Berkeley campus and graduated there in 1927. He later went on to become a professional reporter.)[8]: 25–32
Three years later, Director Moore suspended 14 students for publishing the January 23, 1929, issue of "Hell's Bells," "the filthiest and most indecent piece of printed matter that any of us has ever seen." Some of those students were later reinstated. That was the last issue of "Hell's Bells."[8]: 25–32
Other notable alumni (chronological)
If not cited here, references can be found within the articles.