Mark your calendars now and start making your travel plans! The 2025 Daily Bruin Alumni Network reunion will be on Saturday, Oct. 11, at UCLA. Sign up for the event here. Reconnect with old friends, make new friends and meet the current group of up-and-coming student journalists.
nominations open for the distinguished alumni award
A special part of our reunion is bestowing the Distinguished Alumni award. Do you know someone who is worthy of this honor? Nominate them! Send an email to DailyBruinAlums@gmail.com with their name, a brief description of why they’re noteworthy and your contact information for any follow up questions we might have. Deadline is July 15.
new scholarship in the works
DBAN sends our gratitude to Eva Plaza. She will be establishing a scholarship fund for Daily Bruin in honor of her late husband, former DB staffer Eric Mandel '76, who enjoyed a long career in sports journalism, covering high school sports and horse racing at several local newspapers, including the South Bay Daily Breeze and the Pasadena Star-News.
If you or anyone you know would like to support the work of the Daily Bruin and its student journalists, donations are accepted year round here.
meet the daily bruin leaders
We are honored to share that Dylan Winward was named the 2025-26 editor in chief of the Daily Bruin. Winward, an English and statistics and data science student from London, was previously the 2024-25 News editor and the 2023-24 Features and Student Life editor. He has also contributed to the Arts, Copy, Enterprise, Outreach, Photo, PRIME and Sports sections and previously interned as a public records reporter. In addition to being editor in chief, he will sit ex officio on the paper’s editorial board next year. Winward is excited to focus on developing continual learning opportunities for Bruin staffers and renewing The Bruin’s focus on its mission statement. Outside of his work at The Bruin, Winward is an avid soccer fan and the organizer of The Bruin’s intramural soccer team.
Winward has a message for our network:
Dear Members of the Daily Bruin Alumni Network,
We stand at a crossroads in history.
The White House has pulled credentials from journalists who have told the truth. Billionaire owners have leaned on the papers we’re supposed to look to for an example to influence their editorial endorsements. Mistrust of the mainstream media is at an all-time high, with criticism and attacks on our work more intense than in recent memory. A third of America’s newspapers have shut down since 2005. Student outlets like ours are increasingly having to fill the void; the Daily Bruin was one of the only papers that covered every race on the Los Angeles ballot.
Even in the student media landscape, things don’t look great. Pacemaker-winning newspapers in Indiana, Kansas and Pennsylvania have had to make significant cuts, losing print editions and reporting opportunities. Papers have had their newsstands stripped from their campuses because the university did not like their editorial positions. Papers at UC Berkeley and UC Davis are on the brink. Just across town, the Daily Trojan has cut the frequency with which it prints and eliminated all stipends for its editorial staff.
The Bruin is not immune to these challenges.
Our last couple of years have been difficult. We have faced challenges of biblical proportions: plague and pestilence, fires and floods. Reporters have been harassed. Colleagues have walked out. Student government officials tried to defund us. Just recently, the Communication Board was forced to reduce the frequency of our summer printing.
So, as I start my tenure, the one thing that’s obvious is that it isn’t going to be easy. But even in spite of the challenges, I’m excited about the year ahead. Our 60 incoming editors are ready for the fight. It is their work — in some cases over 40 hours per week on top of academic coursework — that inspired me to lead this paper. Next year, we will reflect on the way we do our work, challenge long-held assumptions and capitalize on every opportunity for learning. We will continue to hold UCLA accountable for its $11 billion of spending.
We can’t do it alone. A strength of any great institution — and I believe that The Bruin is a great institution — is the support it can rally when most needed. Over the next couple of years, we’re going to need your support in raising money to keep student journalism accessible and giving us guidance on staying afloat. You all have fond memories of the learning and experiences you had at The Bruin — we need you to help us to keep those experiences going.
I look forward to working with you all.
Yours faithfully,
Dylan Winward | 2025-26 Editor in Chief
Joining Winward on the leadership team are Zimo Li and Shiv Patel
Zimo Li is the 2025-26 digital managing editor. Li, a history student from Rowland Heights, California, was previously the 2024-25 Photo editor. She has also contributed to the Illustrations and News sections. She hopes to improve collaboration across The Bruin by fostering more connections between writing and multimedia sections. Outside of her work at The Bruin, Li enjoys participating in club taekwondo, hiking with her dog and spending time in nature.
Shiv Patel is the 2025-26 managing editor. Patel, a mathematics/economics student from northern Illinois, was previously the 2024-25 Campus Politics editor. In addition to his work as an assistant News editor, Patel has also contributed to Arts, Design, Outreach, Photo, Podcasts, Social Media and Sports and is Copy staff. Patel hopes to emphasize respect, growth and learning in his role. Aside from his work at The Bruin, he enjoys watching and playing tennis.
In addition, Kayla Williams is the 2025-26 Outreach director. This year, Williams was the 2024-25 assistant external Outreach director, serving as the Daily Bruin’s liaison to the external community and the Daily Bruin Alumni Network. As Outreach director, she will continue to serve as The Bruin’s liaison to DBAN and the external community and spearhead The Bruin’s recruitment efforts.
For any questions about The Bruin, please contact Williams at alumni@dailybruin.com.
daily bruin spring highlights: student government elections, investigations and “whack-a-bruin” game
USAC Election Issue: Elections for student government, the Undergraduate Students Association Council, were underway this quarter and our teams were on it with their coverage, publishing everything between podcasts, graphics and articles. The editorial board also published endorsements for USAC candidates. Check out the content here.
Coachella and Spring Sing Issues: The Arts team covered the Coachella 2025 setlist, providing reviews on artists and food. Take a look at their coverage here. The Arts team also just released its Spring Sing issue, highlighting UCLA’s renowned talent show and its artists. View its Spring Sing content here.
Enterprise: The investigative journalism section, Enterprise, published multiple long-form stories, one of them highlighting how UCLA does not support its formerly incarcerated students and another on how UCLA’s Ascend Finance Transformation project — a project that UCLA has spent $213 million on — is failing. See Enterprise’s content here.
Opinion: The editorial board published an editorial calling for UCLA to rescind its recruitment of a water polo athlete who is an admitted sex offender and discussing how Trump’s actions toward journalists created a harmful atmosphere for journalists. See more of Opinion’s content here.
Sports: The Sports team has covered multiple teams’ (namely men’s golf, men’s volleyball, softball, baseball and more) successes and losses this quarter. See Sports content here!
Video: The Video team published its series “On the Steps,” which serves as the Daily Bruin’s flagship broadcast news-style show. Weekly episodes highlight local and national news stories of interest to Bruins, as well as student life around campus through original video reporting and special guests. Watch “On the Steps” here!
Photo: The Photo team published a plethora of amazing galleries, highlighting Coachella, the Hammer Museum’s Arts Party and the Just Culture x CALL Festival. See its galleries here.
Podcasts: The Podcasts section covered the USAC elections by holding interviews with some of the candidates. The Daily Bruin’s Arts team also created its podcast, “Daily Bruin Spotlight,” highlighting content from its three beats: music and fine arts; theater, film and television; and lifestyle. See more of Podcasts’ content here.
Online: The Online team created “Whack-A-Bruin,” the Daily Bruin’s new fun and addictive spin on the classic “Whac-A-Mole” game. Play “Whack-A-Bruin” here.
Enjoy our content online at https://dailybruin.com/. If you have any questions regarding the Daily Bruin, please email Kayla Williams at alumni@dailybruin.com. Thank you so much for your support, DBAN!
Kudos: The Associated College Press named the Daily Bruin one of 15 of the best student media websites in the country, bestowing its prestigious Pacemaker award. “Today’s best online sites are platforms for rich multimedia storytelling,” ACP associate director Gary Lundgren said. “Deep and diverse coverage with strong engagement and interactivity distinguish the best student-produced sites.”
where are they now?
Lee Goldberg’s '85 newest novel, “Hidden in Smoke” came out in April. His next novel, “Fallen Star,” will come out in October. (And apologies to Lee for getting his last name wrong in the last newsletter!)
When he was in high school in 1979, DBAN member Rick Penn-Kraus '84 landed an amazing scoop: he got an interview with the reclusive actor Steve McQueen. Now, Rick has published a book called “Steve McQueen: The Last Interview.” The subtitle is “The teen who scooped Rolling Stone, Time, Life and Newsweek.” The interview was republished in the Daily Bruin during Rick’s first summer at UCLA and he's looking forward to reaching a larger audience with the material through this new book.
supporting dban
Know a former Daily Bruin staffer who would like to join DBAN? Signing up is super easy. Just go to the DBAN homepage and click on the subscribe button in the lower left column.
send us your news!
Have recent work or personal success to brag about? Email Laureen Lazarovici ’89 and to be included in future newsletters.
