Editor’s note: This editorial will be printed in the April 7, 2025 issue. Editorials should not be interpreted to reflect the opinion, thoughts or beliefs of any individual New University editor, staff member or affiliate.
What you are holding in your hands right now is New University’s first printed issue since our discontinuation of print in 2023. Starting this year, UC Irvine’s official campus newspaper will be bringing back print issues every quarter. In fact, we will be distributing two printed newspaper issues this spring, bringing us to a biquarterly schedule. This revitalization was a long time coming — and the result of many people coming together to bring back this long-lost and sorely missed tradition.
However, without your support, this could be one of the last print issues New University ever makes.
While we have the necessary funds to do biquarterly print for this year, we don’t know how long we can continue until we run out of money. It is likely that we will have to lessen our goals to one print a quarter and then cease all print operations again if we use up all the funds we have available. This is an unfortunate reality, as we have more than 100 members and 34 editors with a drive to write, edit, create and deliver our hard work through the print medium.
We are more than capable of doing more with print, which is why we are asking for you, the student, to vote yes on “The New University’s: Support Student Journalism Student Fee Referendum” in this year’s ASUCI’s elections.
We are only asking for a $2 per undergraduate student per quarter fee. Not only will 33% of that fee be returned to financial aid but every dollar will be used to give back to all students in the way that newspapers have always served the community — with biweekly printed issues in fall, winter and spring quarters.
You may be wondering how printed newspapers can give back to the UCI community. Many news companies operate strictly online, and the print medium is often seen as something from the past, distant from where we are today. However, despite living in the age of the internet and social media, print newspapers are not just a vital part of any student news publication — they are necessary for university communities to thrive.
College campuses are the perfect ecosystems for print to thrive in. Even with UCI being a large university, it allows us to be closer together by informing everybody on what is happening on campus. It shows that everyone can have and know something all together because it’s right there — waiting to be read by the community.
Many of the editorials that the editorial board has written throughout the year have been about how disconnected we are from each other, which is ironic given that we have the technology to be more connected than ever. Even so, it’s difficult to find out about the unique and interesting clubs here on campus or how a significant motion was passed at an ASUCI Senate meeting or how our women’s basketball team dominated their season. Sure, we can Google it but why do we have to search for the community when we can discover it? You can pick up the paper and you may find what you have been looking for this whole time. It’s a magical experience, and it can happen in the palm of your hands.
This editorial is not an effort to convince you that the UCI community should want to have printed newspapers — we already know how desired they are. In the beginning of the academic year, when New University had a booth at the Anteater Involvement Fair, we distributed print newspapers from previous years to encourage students to apply and support student journalism. There was excitement on everyone’s faces when they saw our papers being distributed, and the result of that excitement was us going back to the newsroom a few more times to get more papers to pass out.
We write this to convince you that print newspapers will not only support New University but will support the entire UCI community. Our goal as a publication is to not only provide honest, ethical and empathetic journalism but also to serve you, the student and the reader. We are a platform that provides a place for student voices to be heard and upholds our right to speak proudly and loudly. While we have continued to be that necessary platform through our website and social media, we believe that we can uplift our community even more with print. Newspapers have always taken the student voice, the voice of our generation, and memorialized it in a way that can never be changed. It makes it more accessible, tangible and significantly more important when every single person in the community has access to it.
With your support, we will not only be able to continue to serve the UCI community but can maintain the legacy of student journalism here on campus. You can help us return to an era of student journalists who utilized print to inform the community with breaking stories. You can help us give back to you, the reader, by allowing us to strengthen our community and to bring us closer together.
In this year’s ASUCI’s election, a vote for student journalism is a vote for strengthening community, staying informed, revitalizing a legacy and supporting UCI student voices.
New University’s referendum language can be found here. Voting begins on Monday, April 14 at 9:00 a.m.