Daily Nexus

The Daily Nexus is the university newspaper for the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Student journalism 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 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" 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 and next to the offices of KCSB-FM, the campus radio station. Storke Tower is named for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former U.S. Senator Thomas Storke, who was also a founder of the Santa Barbara News-Press.