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The most common complaint I hear about the Daily Bruin is that it’s not really a student paper. “It never covers anything I care about,” moaned one student. “It’s too uptight,” griped another, “It just doesn’t seem very ‘collegey.’ So many of the stories aren’t even written by UCLA students.”

To make it clear once and for all, I apologize to those of you who feel the Bruin doesn’t live up to your expectations. But more than that, I encourage you to help us improve. I can assure you that no one on campus wants to see the Bruin become its best more than those of us who work here.

So write in. Share your opinion on a topic one of our columnists or reporters covered, let us know of an upcoming event that you’d like us to cover, give us constructive criticism about the paper itself, or tell us about your woes with the administration. If you’re frustrated that you spend more time on your two-unit lab class than your five-unit humanities course, we’re here to complain to! On the other hand, if you love this university and want to say why, it would make my day. Unrealized by many, we publish positive comments, too.

In comparison to the community it serves, the Bruin staff is very small, especially given that we spend a disproportionate amount of our college careers in these windowless cubicles. Try as we may, we do miss some of the events and opinions that can be found here on campus. It isn’t intentional, however, and with your help we can definitely have a more reflective spectrum of coverage. We’re happy to take opinions on any topic, whether it was something we covered in news, Viewpoint or something new.

I just wish I had known that two years ago; I delayed my application to the Bruin for six months because one of the editorials offended me so much. I now realize my anger was misguided; I should’ve instead written in and explained exactly why that editorial was wrong. It had missed a number of important arguments and facts, and I know I could’ve provided the UCLA community with a much more thorough view of the issue if I had written in.

If you’re in my previous situation, don’t hesitate the way I did. Not only will you feel better when your letter is published, but the new information you provide could have a huge impact. Say a news article missed an important argument against a particular proposition, but you wrote in about the missing argument and swayed a whole group of voters to reject the proposition. You’d feel pretty good, wouldn’t you?

Depending on your available time, you can either write a short, pithy letter to the editor or a longer submission where you will have a chance to fully explain your views. We’re happy to take something of any length.

Also, rather than saying mean things to our columnists as they walk through campus, take the higher road and inform me if you disagree with their views – your feelings could be much better expressed as a written argument in our paper than as an insult to the columnist.

We’re here for you to express your opinions, and I really hope you take advantage of it.

Honigsberg is the 2004-2005 Viewpoint editor.