I'm Jeong Park, a local reporter at the Orange County Register. To say it has been an interesting time to be a reporter is an understatement. Over the past few months, I've reported from dozens of protests across Orange County. I've visited countless businesses as they closed, reopened, then closed again. I've been in so many Zoom calls and meetings where everyone tells each other to mute themselves. It's been chaotic and stressful — especially for someone who actually misses being in a physical newsroom.
But for me, the last few months have also brought a much-needed reckoning to the way we do our job. Our newsroom is finally talking about how we can better cover the communities of color, from the way we use the word "looting" to the way we engage with sources. We're talking about how to better mentor and train young journalists, especially those of color. Those much-needed discussions should have taken place years ago, but they were glossed over because we never seemed to have found the time for it. But the last few months have made those discussions necessary and prominent.
In a way, college newsrooms like the Daily Bruin are a preview of what's to be discussed in newsrooms like ours. From analyzing the diversity of its staff to how often students of color get stopped by the University of California Police Department, the Daily Bruin has been discussing the issue of diversity, representation and inequity since well before the pandemic and recent protests. And seeing the recent works of the Bruin, such as its story of scholarships offered by a Confederacy heritage group, makes me proud to call myself a Daily Bruin alumnus. I have learned and I will continue to learn a lot from the Daily Bruin staff and its works — and I am excited to see what's ahead for the school year.
Jeong Park ’17,
On behalf of the Daily Bruin Alumni Network Board
Meet the Staff
The Daily Bruin staff may only be in Kerckhoff Hall in spirit this year, but they’re still working hard to produce the news. See how they’re doing it and meet the current editors in this great video the staff put together.
You might already have an intuition that the “State of the Bruin” right now is a bit unconventional. You’d be right.
In the last few months, the world shifted under the Daily Bruin’s feet. We have continually done our best to adapt. For the most recent quarter, that has meant dropping our print products altogether in favor of digital publishing. Our staff is still doing incredible work remotely and has taken to coronavirus coverage with the intensity the public deserves from a small newsroom in larger-than-life times.
For now, our finances seem like they will hold. We have a reserve, but the real concerns will kick in if advertisers are unable to pick up where they left off when life returns to quasi-normal. A proposal to reduce print volume for fall quarter is on the table. We are pushing hard to expand our digital projects, which I sincerely hope you will all enjoy.
I would love to write the last lines about how we’re growing and taking on the future, but I’ll be honest: it’s sometimes difficult to look out at the future from the trenches. Even so, the staff is not despairing: We are evolving. Our adaptations to digital, remote and crisis-oriented coverage will only make us stronger for the future. So don’t worry too much about us. The Daily Bruin is not going anywhere. As always, we have a job to do.
Melissa Morris,
Daily Bruin Editor-in-Chief
Give Back
Daily Bruin alumni, we need your help! Students are relying on us to award $10,000 in merit-based scholarships this year. So far we’ve raised $1,935 from 17 generous donors. Every $20 helps us meet our goal, so please consider chipping in what you can. And if your employer does donation matching, you can double your gift by telling them to give to the UCLA Foundation.
If you enjoy keeping up with the Daily Bruin, why not sign up to critique the paper one week? The students no longer have a full-time advisor, so we’re doing what we can to fill the gap. Read a day or two of coverage online and send in a few thoughts on what was great and what could have been improved.
Pandemic or not, we’re getting together (virtually)! In lieu of our third annual Daily Bruin Alumni Network reunion on campus, we’ll convene on Zoom to hear from the top editors of the Bruin as they publish in a school year unlike any other in UCLA history. We will also toast our 2020-21 Daily Bruin Scholarship recipients.
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 5 p.m. — “The Art of Storytelling”
Alumni Alice Short ’77 and Laureen Lazarovici ’89 are leading a workshop aimed at the current staff and young alumni on how to craft a powerful story. All alumni welcome!
DBAN Virtual Event
We shared a great evening last month with ProPublica reporter Robert Faturechi ’08, who joined us to chat with Sara Randazzo ’08 about his Pulitzer Prize-winning series on fatal disasters in the Navy and Marines. He also regaled us with stories about how the Daily Bruin helped jump-start his career and how he cracks a tough story. Anyone who missed it can watch the event here.
Class Notes
We mourn the loss of Liyna Anwar ’11, who passed away in March from complications of acute myeloid leukemia. The New York Times paid tribute to Liyna’s life and how her struggle to find a stem cell transplant helped publicize racial disparities in marrow and stem cell registries. After graduating from UCLA, Liyna produced radio and podcast stories for StoryCorps, NPR and the Los Angeles Times.
Bianca Broszus ’15 works for a Bay Area biotech startup called Chai that’s been producing coronavirus environmental surface test kits as well as COVID-19 human surveillance kits and the devices used to run them. Before the pandemic Chai was an average biotech startup, but they’ve had to pivot quickly to stay up and running. As a result, Bianca’s pandemic experience has been working a ton — and still from the office, so she can’t relate to the quarantine/work-from-home struggle!
Patricia Selby ’95 (Née Flanagan) has moved to New England. Born in California and living her entire adult life on the West Coast, she is learning how to pronounce names of towns like Peabody and being schooled in the ways of the lobster roll. She’s taking care of an historic home built in 1835 in the town of Foxborough, all while running her vacation rental home business based in the South of France and Palm Springs, in the middle of a pandemic.
The second novel from Jane Rosenberg LaForge ’83, “Sisterhood of the Infamous,” will be published in the coming months by New Meridian Arts Literary Press. The novel was inspired by the life and death of Jane’s sister, Susan Rosenberg (also a Bruin, Class of '85, Master's Degree '87), who was involved with the birth of the punk rock scene in Los Angeles during the 1970s. Jane’s third full-length collection of poetry, “Medusa’s Daughter,” will be published by Animal Heart Press in February.
Dave Peden, who worked at the Bruin from 1972 to 1975, and his wife Jill celebrated their 40th anniversary in June. They're both retired and live a mile from the beach in Oregon with kids and grandkids nearby. Dave worked in media for 25 years in small market newspapers and magazines, 22 years of that on the Oregon Coast, then worked 20 years as an elections clerk. A Daily Bruin highlight was filing stories from the Watergate Hearings.
Send Us Your News!
Have recent work or personal success to brag about? Email Sara Randazzo to be included in future newsletters.
