Daily Nexus
Encyclopedia
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
for the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
(UCSB).
Student journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
has always been a part of college life in Santa Barbara, even before the existence of UCSB. Before joining the University of California system, for example, Santa Barbara State College had a newspaper called The Eagle. As the institution slowly transformed into the modern UCSB, it adopted various other named for various other news publications, including The Roadrunner, El Gaucho and The University Post. The paper reverted back to the name El Gaucho by 1964. In 1967, former El Gaucho editor John Maybury started a competing off-campus paper called "The Isla Vista Argo". Protesters burned down the Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
building in Isla Vista in 1970. In the wake of that incident, the paper's editors decided to change the publication's name to the Daily Nexus, in order to "keep with the changing nature of the university." The name was drawn by the paper's 1970-71 editorial board from a quote attributed to Robert Maynard Hutchins: "A free press is the nexus of any democracy."
Since then, the Daily Nexus has provided the students of UCSB with both campus-related and county-wide news each Monday through Friday. Today, the paper boasts a staff of roughly 30 student editors and dozens of student reporters. Few non-students are permitted to work at the paper. All employees are hired, promoted and trained by other students. Unlike many college newspapers, the administration has very little say in the content, since the paper's editor-in-chief, always a student, has the final say regarding what gets printed in the Daily Nexus. Regardless, students are paid for their work at the Nexus through the school and therefore are technically employees of the University of California. Much of the paper's funding, however, is derived through advertisement sales, much of which are done by student ad reps.
Currently, the paper features a team of news reporters and editors, photographers, sports writers and editors and staff for Artsweek, a weekly arts supplement in which students review movies and music and discuss cultural goings-on. The paper also features a daily opinion section in which the Nexus editors give staff editorials. This section also features space for any student or member of the Isla Vista community to write an opinion column or letter to the editor. Two of the paper's most popular features include a weekly sex column, The Wednesday Hump, as well as a humor/advice column, "Dear Igor". Both run on the opinion page. The paper features daily drawings by student artists as well. At various points in the paper's history, it has also featured a science news section and The Daily Friday, a humor supplement.
The Daily Nexus office is situated in the Storke Communications Plaza, beneath Storke Tower
Storke Tower
Storke Tower is a landmark campanile located on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara in the United States. Dedicated for use on September 28, 1969, the 61-bell carillon tower stands tall....
and next to the offices of KCSB-FM, the campus radio station. Storke Tower is named for Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist and former U.S. Senator Thomas Storke, who was also a founder of the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Daily Nexus highlights
In 1986, Steve Elzer broke the story regarding the investigation into misappropriation of UC funds by then-UCSB Chancellor Robert HuttenbackRobert Huttenback
Robert Arthur Huttenback was the third Chancellor of UC Santa Barbara from 1977 to 1986. He resigned the post in July 1986 after allegations that he and his wife had embezzled more than $100,000 from the university to perform renovations on their home.-External links:* -References:...
. What had initially begun as a news article regarding the sudden departure of a UCSB vice chancellor eventually ended in an exposé of Huttenback's financial activities. Among other things, Huttenback had used UC funds to repair and improve his privately owned home. Huttenback resigned from his post on July 11, 1986. A review of the incident by the UC President was declared moot and never officially released. The story had been followed by newspapers throughout California, including the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.
In 1995, the Daily Nexus filed suit against California Governor Pete Wilson
Pete Wilson
Peter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...
and the UC Regents, alleging that the regents had illegally conspired during phone conferences to line up support for the cancellation of Affirmative Action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
. The suit claimed that the conference was a violation of the Bagely-Keane Open Meeting Act
Bagley-Keane Act
The Bagley-Keene Act of 1967, officially known as the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, implements a provision of the California Constitution which declares that "the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny", and explicitly mandates...
. Then-campus editor Tim Molloy and the Daily Nexus were both listed as plaintiffs. In June 1999, the California Supreme Court ruled that the paper could not continue with its suit, as any suits alleging violations of the Bagley-Keane act must be filed within thirty days of the supposed violation. The court never actually ruled whether Wilson or the regents had violated the law, however. The suit received coverage in newspapers across the country.
For a time period in the mid-to-late 1990s, the Nexus began featuring a number of op-ed columns, mostly related to the life around UCSB and Isla Vista, Goleta and Santa Barbara in general. Among these pieces included Last Call, a highly satirical (if occasionally sardonic) column co-written by Erin Vosti and Shannon Dorgan.
On April 5, 2001, staff writer Brendan Buhler interviewed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
author Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
in what turned out to be Adams' final interview before he died. After being published in the Nexus, selections from Buhler's interview were published in Douglas' final book, The Salmon of Doubt
The Salmon of Doubt
The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time is a posthumous collection of previously published and unpublished material by Douglas Adams...
. The excerpts were noted as having come from the Daily Nexus.
In 2002, Nexus staff writers Marisa Lagos and Jennifer B. Siverts provided daily coverage of the duration of the quadruple murder trial of David Attias
David Attias
David Attias is a former student of the University of California, Santa Barbara and current patient of Patton State Hospital. He is most noteworthy for his perpetration of the Isla Vista massacre.-Personal:...
, who had killed four people in Isla Vista by running them down with his car on February 23, 2001. At the time of the incident, Attias had been a freshman at UCSB. In July 2002, a Santa Barbara jury ruled that Attias was guilty but insane at the time of the incident. The Attias case was also covered by newspapers such as Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
. It also has been featured in multiple installments of the Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
news show.
Two long-time non-student employees, Barb MacLean and J.E. Anderson, worked at the Nexus for several decades.
Controversy
UCSB students have sometimes reacted strongly to the Nexus' content. Student minority groups have marched in protest of the paper more than once. In 2000, the Filipino students' union picketed the paper in reaction to a joke in an April Fool's article regarding a fictional bombing of the Philippines.In early 2005, UCSB's Black Student Union also marched in protest after the paper featured two front-page photos of a black man being arrested for allegedly raping a student in her dorm room. The incident was only one in a series of clashes between the paper and minority students at UCSB that date back to 1974, during which student Murvin Glass sued the Nexus and its editor-in-chief, Jim Minow. Glass claimed that the Nexus had printed an editorial cartoon that insinuated that he had stolen copies of the paper. Glass won the suit in 1979.
The newspaper's daily Weatherhuman feature contains cynical, and sometimes offensive commentary on news stories.
Notable alumni
Some notable alumni of the Nexus (Position at Nexus):- Steve CzabanSteve CzabanSteve Czaban is an American sports radio personality. Czaban hosts The Steve Czaban Show on Yahoo! Sports Radio weekday mornings from 6 to 10 a.m., and co-hosts The Sports Reporters with Andy Pollin on "ESPN 980" WTEM weekday afternoons from 4 to 7 p.m...
- Radio personality - (Sports) - Josh ElliottJosh ElliottJosh Elliott is a television journalist who is the news anchor for ABC's Good Morning America. Previously, he was co-anchor for the live telecast of ESPN's SportsCenter from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET with Hannah Storm or Sage Steele...
- ESPN SportsCenter anchor and former Sports Illustrated writer. (Sports Editor) - Morgan J. FreemanMorgan J. FreemanMorgan J. Freeman is an American film director. In 1997, his debut feature, Hurricane Streets, became the first narrative film to win three awards at the Sundance Film Festival...
- Director (ArtsWeek) - Jason RossJason RossJason Ross may refer to:*Jason Ross , American, gay pornographic actor*Jason Ross , American writer*Jason Ross , Artemas Quibble and the Creatures of Mme. du Barry...
- Emmy award winning writer for "The Daily ShowThe Daily ShowThe Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
". (News Editor/Editor in Chief) - Christopher ScheerChristopher ScheerChristopher Scheer is the co-author, with Robert Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry, of The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq published in 2003 in the U.S., England and Australia. The book appeared on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list and was a part of the national debate in 2004 about the...
- Former editor at the San Francisco Examiner, managing editor at of the alternative news site Alternet. - Bob SipchenBob SipchenBob Sipchen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and currently the Communications Director of the Sierra Club, America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. Sipchen serves as Editor-in-Chief of , a national publication with a circulation of...
-- Former LA Times editor, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Adjunct Professor at Occidental College's Dept. of English, UCSB's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2006, author. - Tony Pierce - Former Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
blog editor - Melissa Lalum - Former managing editor of Los Angeles Daily NewsLos Angeles Daily NewsThe Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest circulating daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, a branch of Colorado-based MediaNews Group....
, currently professor of journalism at California State University, NorthridgeCalifornia State University, NorthridgeCalifornia State University, Northridge is a public university in Northridge, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, United States....