Opinion

Coming to UC Irvine, I thought I knew exactly what I did and did not want. I wanted to be at UCLA. I didn’t want to be in Irvine. I wanted to have fun and party and, maybe on occasion, study. I wanted to be a fiction writer, not a journalist.

My time at UC Irvine began almost two years ago when I arrived as a slightly disinterested transfer student, and the plan at that point was pretty straightfo rward. I envisioned myself commuting to school every day, heading to class with maybe a quick stop for coffee beforehand, then driving back home to chill out with my cats, just like I did at community college. I had already been informed that everyone at UCI was “anti-social” anyway, so I figured it would be easy enough.

Congratulations, incoming Anteaters, and welcome to UC Irvine! As you can probably anticipate, the best way to begin your love affair with UCI is at SPOP, the “mandatory” Student/Parent Orientation Program. But we hope that you’ll realize that it’s okay to not like SPOP; in fact, it’s okay to hate it because, when you really think about it, SPOP has very little to do with what UCI is about.

From beginning as a Layout intern to becoming Managing Editor, I’ve seen UCI through the eyes of the New University for three years of highs and lows. Though it hasn’t always been a stroll through the park, I’ve loved my time at the New U because it’s given me the opportunity to meet people all over campus, to talk with administrators and student leaders and to learn about everything from budgets to athletics.

How does one adequately condense four years into 1,000 words? How do you capture the salient without missing out on the hilariously uncouth? It’s been one heck of a ride as Editor-in-Chief of the New University this year; here are some parting thoughts.

If you were expecting a nice, juicy editorial section per usual, I’m sorry to disappoint you. This is the big boo-hoo section where every departing editor bares his or her soul for all to see. If I were you, I would certainly turn the page. I could not think of one institution that I would care less to read the behind the scenes of than the New University.

Standing on the bridge leading away from the not-yet-opened Student Center, I snapped a picture on my phone of HIB and Humanities Hall. I was an incoming freshman, preparing to leave mini-SPOP, and I remember thinking to myself, “Well, this is my home for the next four years.”

Older people around me seem to recall and demark eras of their lives by the presidential administration, and it always seems somehow delightfully old-fashioned and nostalgic to me when my parents refer to “the Carter administration” or “the Nixon years” rather than “the seventies."

In 1962, master planner and architect William Pereira drew up several proposals for Aldrich Park that included lakes and a bell tower. The tower, named “centrum,” was supposed to be located at the center of campus, in the middle of the park, where carillons would ring every hour in the spirit of centuries-old tradition.

As another school year comes to an end, another cohort of students must take stock of their relationship to “the real world.” This is experienced differently for different groups, of course.

Are you tired of hearing about the state of the economy? Well, too bad. It stinks out there and in just two weeks, a few thousand of us are going to don low-quality polyester gowns and walk with pomp only to be thrown out into the world once and for all to experience it for ourselves.

Can we afford to keep Pakistan as an ally? Can we afford to lose them? In the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, questions upon heaping questions have been aimed at the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.