As the next co-editors in chief of the Daily Nexus, Amitha Bhat and Emily Yoon decided to address readers at the beginning of their term via a conversation with each other. This conversation was transcribed from an audio recording, and is edited for clarity and concision. To contact the editors in chief, please email eic@dailynexus.com.

Tell us about yourself.

EY: I am a third-year English major here at UC Santa Barbara. I’m from SoCal, born and raised. I started with the Nexus as a copy editor in the fall of my freshman year, and I’ve written for a couple of the sections here, in addition to being on editorial staff. I’m also involved in a marketing consulting group, Gaucho Creative, as a designer. 

AB: I’m a fourth year student double majoring in communication and writing and literature. I have been a part of the Daily Nexus since my freshman year, and worked as the Opinion editor. Aside from the Nexus, I do social media for Gaucho Racing, an engineering club. I’m also the EIC of a literary journal housed in the College of Creative Studies, Spectrum Literary Journal. 

How did you first get involved with the Nexus?

EY: I did journalism in high school. I was the Arts and Entertainment editor and the lead design editor during my time there and coming here, I wanted to continue. And I saw that Copy was hiring, and I was like, why don’t I try something different? 

I feel like coming to the Nexus was probably the best decision that I made in college, because it became a wonderful home base for me, and I feel like it’s the kind of place where you can meet people who are creative and incredible and passionate about whatever it is they like to do. 

AB: I had a journalism internship in high school, the summer of my junior year. That was a really formative experience. 

And then I had a very tumultuous freshman year, and going to the Nexus meetings was actually a very amazing, safe space for me. And I remember going to those Opinion meetings where Toni [Shindler-Ruberg] and Emily [Kocis], the previous Opinion editors, would just joke around with each other and have a fun time, like having us do horoscopes and pitch things. And I remember really loving that atmosphere. 

I liked being involved in a lot of different things at UCSB, but I especially felt that being involved with the Nexus was like having your finger on the pulse of everything that UCSB has to offer and being the sounding board for everything that goes on on campus. 

What made you want to be EIC? 

AB: Emily and I were both originally interested in managing, and then we decided to collaborate and run for EIC together, and I found myself really enjoying every part of the job and loving to get to know all the sections with my work. 

For Opinion, my previous position, I had an amazing time, getting to know the writers and the ins and outs of the opinion section. I have a lot of love for every section at the Nexus, and I think that’s something that made me want to be EIC, because you get to interact with them all in a very involved capacity. 

As I was training for the position too, I found myself wanting to be EIC more and more. And there was this one print night where that was shortly after Emily and I were elected, where we worked on that week’s print edition until 4:30 a.m. And I was secretly like, “Oh, that was awesome.” So I think that’s what I knew, “Okay, this was the right decision.”

EY: There’s a song. And it’s called “A Little Bit of Everything.” And it’s like, I want a little bit of everything. I want the beans. I want the turkey. I want the corn bread. I want the pumpkin pie. 

One of my goals in life is to be someone who knows “a little bit of everything,” like a jack of all trades, if you will. That was one of the things that was really fulfilling about Copy. I went to a basketball game, and I was like, “I know what’s going on here because of my job.” I got to know about the Munger Hall housing situation through the news coverage of it. I got to learn about food and culture and niche things that happen on campus. 

Becoming EIC felt like a logical next step for me because you get to work so deeply with each section and work together to create a cohesive vision for the year. And that’s one of my favorite things about the job. 

How do you plan to navigate campus climate this upcoming year?

EY: In tumultuous times, it is important that people know what’s going on, when it’s going on. That is one of the most important functions of a newspaper, and so being timely, being accurate and letting people know what’s up is something that we’ve been doing and something that we will continue to do.

Our editorial process ensures that editors from at least three sections read each article. Section editors navigate specific coverage from its initial pitch to final publication. Copy editors read for grammar, accuracy and clarity. As EICs, we read the final draft through multiple contexts and lenses, ensuring that all articles are up to Nexus standards. And our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion chairs edit all coverage that relates to identity, culture and community. 

When I was in Washington, D.C. this past spring, I interned in the House of Representatives, and I attended meetings where the rhetoric was very bipartisan — I didn’t realize how deep the bipartisanship runs in our government. Political communications and journalism are definitely different spheres, and I definitely understand the rationale for why the House Democrats or the House Republicans run the way that they do. 

But it made me realize the impetus for having objective journalism in a world where we have political parties whose communication is for persuasion — which is not a bad thing; that’s just the way our government works. It’s important to provide that counterbalance through communication purely for information, which is what we aim to do through the news that we provide. 

AB: I completely agree with Emily that it’s important to abide by journalism ethics and be on our quest for accurate, timely news. Being a source of news on campus and in the Isla Vista area is a very huge responsibility. We as the Nexus, and also as EICs, aim to stay on that quest to provide accurate news to our community that will hopefully be helpful as we navigate this upcoming year. I know there’s a lot of factors that can influence campus climate this upcoming year and we just want to be a source of information to everyone and allow people to make informed decisions based on what’s going on. 

Also, as the opinion editor for the previous (23-24) academic year, my section was tasked with navigating campus climate during that time. Now, going into being co-EIC and overseeing the Nexus as a whole, we’re very aware of the impact that publication can have on campus climate, and we want to proceed with a lot of intent about what we are publishing in particular, so that our coverage can aim for accuracy and objectivity while also considering the effect on campus climate.

What do you think the role is of the Nexus in UCSB and I.V.?

AB: I think that Atmika Iyer, the EIC from two years back, put it best when she gave a workshop to our staff this past spring, and she talked about the responsibility that we have to our community as journalists, talked about ethics of journalism and she said something very powerful about the Nexus — that there’s newspapers that cover Santa Barbara, the larger Santa Barbara area and there’s organizations that cover news happening at UCSB, but we are covering this very distinct area of UCSB and I.V. 

A newspaper, at its core, is a source of information and a representation of the community around them. The role of the Nexus is to represent our community and hold up a mirror to the community that we have here, and I think that that is something that all of our editors are working really hard at. 

I also think our role is to be very transparent as a news source. We are all college students and we are trying our very, very best but in the case that we make a mistake, we want to clarify that to our community and correct it.

The Nexus wants to be open to answering any questions that people have. In spring, the Nexus typically hosts a Pizza with the Press session, where anyone interested in our process can ask us anything. We want to speak directly with the people who are reading our paper and answer questions in regards to how we are covering campus climate, events, etc. 

I also got this idea from Lizzy Rager, our co-lead news editor, but she suggested a news audit and I think that would be a really great way to see where we’re at with coverage in the news section specifically, and we can have broader events for other sections as well. Feel free to also drop by any of our tablings to ask about our process. 

EY: Like Amitha said earlier, [the Nexus] is a way for people to have their finger on the pulse of everything that’s going on around campus. It’s a way for you to know about everything from different avenues of campus, and to hear from people that are different from you. 

Someone came up to me when I was tabling yesterday, and they asked, “Why Nexus?” They were asking why it’s called the Daily Nexus. 

When I was asked that question, I said, “It’s the hub. It’s the center.” And I feel like that’s really what we aim to do. To be the center. Like an oasis, or a watering hole. You can come to our writers’ meetings, and share what you know and what you think. And you can also pick up the paper on Thursdays and learn something new. 

What are your goals for the year?

EY: There’s a lot that we can do in terms of multimedia coverage. We have an art department, a video department and a social department. By integrating those sections with each other and with sections that produce writing content, there are so many great things we can do. Not everyone is going to read the physical paper outright. But people are scrolling on TikTok and Instagram. 

We reject that print journalism is dead, because it’s not. But we do believe that we should meet the people where they’re at, and bring them into our sphere and show them, “Hey, print journalism is cool!”

In addition to expanding as a multimedia outlet, we also want to host live events in our office, playing off of the fact that we have a pretty sick office space. When people come to visit us, they’re always like, “Oh, damn, this is like, such a cool office!” 

So we want to have open mics and music nights with live bands in collaboration with our incredible sections, who know a lot about their respective niches, opening up our home to the community that is here in Santa Barbara and I.V. 

AB: Another point that we were thinking about a lot last year, is the idea of being a tangible entity and a tangible presence on campus. Print journalism may be dead elsewhere, but it is not dying on a college campus, and it’s not dying at UCSB. It’s a very social environment. People here are very eager to get to know the community around them and the people around them. 

And I think that, as the Nexus, that is something that we should be aware of, and we want to be out on campus at those Arbor tables, handing out our papers on Thursdays. 

Being very accessible is something that we have been wanting to do this upcoming year, so we’re looking forward to that, and we hope that you guys see us around and get to know us a lot more.

What is your favorite article you’ve ever written? 

EY: One of the articles I’ve written is an opinion piece about my hometown, being at college and coming home, and how it’s so different from perpetually being at home. The tenderness that I felt towards my hometown was something that I had to ruminate on over time. 

And my other favorite article that I wrote is about Asian American identity. I joke about being very whitewashed, coming from a predominantly Caucasian place. But I feel like when you say someone is whitewashed, it’s discounting how much they’ve been impacted by the melting pot, or tapestry, of American culture that isn’t just white. The article was basically me being like, “I like me the way that I am.” I like experiencing my culture, but there is no right way to do that. There is no right way to have grown up. 

AB: There’s a couple. My favorite thing that I’ve ever done at the Nexus is actually my three part series chronicling my freshman experience, because I had such a tumultuous experience and I think it was tumultuous in a way that I initially felt was untraditional. 

I wrote it in quarterly sections, and published each section in the corresponding quarter in my second year. It was this year-long retrospective. And it was so interesting to see how things have changed so much by the end of my second year.

And someone actually reached out to me after the first one was published, and they expressed that they related to it. And I remember feeling very happy, because during my freshman year, it felt like I was the only one who was having a hard time adjusting to university. But there’s so many other people who are going through the same thing. They’re just not talking about it. And I was like, “I want to talk about this.”

How does it feel to be a part of a two-EIC team, as this is not something that has happened frequently in the past?

AB: It’s been really interesting so far, because throughout my whole time at the Nexus, I’ve never seen a co-EIC duo, and I’ve had an awesome time working with Emily. I think it’s really great to have two EICs, because we both have a similar vision and goal for the paper. But we have that manpower to really focus our energy towards these tangible projects. 

And just the weekly housekeeping of the Daily Nexus is already a very huge time commitment and requires a lot of energy just to get that paper out every week. But, to kind of move forward, broaden our horizons, expand coverage and do the things that we want to do here, it’s really, really beneficial to have two EICs — especially with our various backgrounds, lenses and experiences. I think we have a lot that we can contribute jointly to this newspaper.

EY: I feel like we pushed the envelope and we said, “Why does the Daily Nexus have to be a one-parent household?” And pushing the envelope is something that we’re going to continue to do all year. 

So Amitha was the Opinion editor before becoming EIC, and so she just knows what it means to get to know a section — to nurture writers throughout their process, to run section meetings and to go deep with one section — whereas, I come from Copy and we interact[ed] with every section. We like to say that we are the perfect intersection of breadth and depth. 

What’s your favorite thing about the Nexus? 

AB: The thing about the Nexus as a paper is that it branches out into different and creative forms. It has a lot of different things within it. We have such a huge variety of sections, you can pick up a Nexus paper and read creative nonfiction and the latest news story and a serious profile all in one and see your horoscope for the week. So the Nexus is this cornucopia of UCSB, it’s a little slice of what UCSB has to offer. 

EY: I’m gonna say something nice that readers can look forward to in the paper when they pick it up. On our [staff] masthead, there’s a staff quote each week, and that’s something someone said in the office during that print [night]. It’s always something really, really funny. 

END 

In the Letter from the Editor in the October 3, 2024 print edition of the Daily Nexus, there is a missing dialogue tag in the the fourth paragraph that answers the question, “What made you want to be EIC?” That paragraph, beginning with “There’s a song,” should be attributed to Emily Yoon.