With its large lower division classes and expansive campus, UCLA is often unfairly labeled as an impersonal university. Many high school students are warned before they enroll at a big school that they will be “just a number,” but my experiences at UCLA have proved quite the contrary. Read more...

On behalf of the UCLA faculty, I would like to congratulate all of you who are completing your bachelor’s degrees. The ancient Greek writer Aeschylus suggests in his “Oresteia” that we must suffer into knowledge. Read more...

To the graduating Class of 2005: Congratulations! We made it! As your outgoing president, I want to share some final thoughts and wish you well. As we celebrate with our families this momentous occasion in each of our lives, it’s important that we savor this personal victory as much as possible, and also take time to reflect on our education as we plan for the future. Read more...

When I visit friends at other schools, I look for copies of their campus newspapers. I always have a preconceived notion that the papers will disappoint me, and they usually do. Read more...

Commencement marks one of life’s most memorable milestones. It honors a significant accomplishment: the successful completion of the requirements for your degree. It also marks the end of an important formative period and the beginning of the promising future for which you have prepared at UCLA. Read more...

When people say we’re elitist, I start laughing. Most of us are loud, opinionated and cynical. But elitist? I wonder how the rumor got started. We eat our lunches in an unventilated office while making frantic phone calls, and finish writing our articles only to go home and stay up late writing papers. Read more...

Two of the scariest tests I’ve ever taken weren’t during midterm season or finals week. They were at the tail end of this past fall quarter, when I realized that I’d have to do more with my life than attend lectures, play intramural tennis and write sports stories. Read more...