Michael Weiner Weiner was Viewpoint
editor, a columnist, an assistant news editor and a news reporter.
He graduates with a B.A. in history and political science.
I’ve spent four years working at the Daily Bruin dedicated
to the idea that what happens at this university matters, that the
students and staff who study and work here should care about such
seemingly inconsequential subjects as campus politics and
administrative policies. But until recently, I wasn’t sure
why.
Near the beginning of this school year, as I inched ever closer
toward graduation, I began to reflect on the thousands of hours
I’ve spent covering the myriad issues that are at work on
this campus. Why, I kept asking myself, are these things
significant? What is the hidden meaning of UCLA, which must shine
with bright clarity behind the muddled fog of affirmative action
protests, curricular reform and the like?
I think I’ve finally come upon an answer: This university
matters not merely for its own sake but because of what it
represents. UCLA, along with other great public universities like
it, is a training ground for the segment of the populace that has
come to define that enviable designation, “the average
American.” The next white-collar middle class ““ once
and for all, the standard bearer of our nation’s history
““ is born here. In very general terms, UCLA is ground zero
for the future of this country.
Historian Howard Zinn teaches us that the most significant
societal force in forging our nation’s course of events is
not the elite nor the poor and destitute. It is the professional
class, the group of people in our service-oriented society who
operate the gears and levers of the American machine and whose
cultural values have come to define the American way of life.
Consequently, systematic social change will not be dictated from
the top down or asserted from the bottom up. It will only come when
a critical mass of the great American middle class rejects its
current path of selfishness and tunnel vision.
While the power elite of the next generation ““ the
senators and CEOs ““ are cultivated at schools like Harvard,
Yale and Stanford, the mass of professionals who actually do the
work of this country ““ the lawyers, doctors, teachers, small
business owners and middle managers ““ spend their formative
years at large public universities.
UCLA, with its urban setting, its crowded campus, its research
emphasis and, perhaps most importantly, its challenge to provide
equal access to students of all races and socioeconomic groups,
might be the perfect archetype.
That is why what happens at UCLA matters. Students should pay
attention to the vicissitudes of campus news events because they
are essential markers of the evolution of values and priorities
that will eventually define our generation of professionals. Thus,
The Bruin’s role is not merely to inform readers of their
present conditions, but also to give them a small peek at the
future.
We live in an epoch characterized by rampant poverty and
injustice, when a strong economy has not lifted all boats but has
merely widened the gap between rich and poor. Sadly, the forebears
of our generation have demonstrated an unwillingness to change the
course of an era that author Jonathan Kozol calls one of the
“coldest” in American history.
As a journalist at UCLA, I’ve encountered reasons for both
optimism and pessimism about the prospects for my generation to
effect change in the future. I am encouraged by the thousands of
students who participate in campus-based community service and
outreach programs, but I am also dismayed by the political
indifference and marketplace values of many of my peers.
Studying at and reporting on this university has given me a
glimpse of the future, though it’s difficult to discern just
how that future will manifest itself. What I do know is that UCLA
has taught me something profound about the vital role that great
public universities play in our society. I graduate secure in the
knowledge that the hours I spent working at The Bruin were not in
vain, and hopeful that my generation of professionals will live up
to its full potential and change the world.