Man, I’m going to miss this place — The Daily Campus, not the University of Connecticut. Seniors, we’re getting out at a good time because everything from the housing crisis to pesticides will increasingly plague people’s experience here. I’d be far more pessimistic about my time as a UConn student if not for The Daily Campus, so let me tell you why.
The first Daily Campus meeting is typically scary: walking into an out-of-place building behind Moe’s and creeping up the back staircase expecting a quaint newspaper section meeting inside. Instead, everyone is talking it up, they all know each other and you feel misplaced, but the premise of writing articles sounds cool.
After all, I took a publishing class in high school. In fact, as I’d come to find out, The Daily Campus is a lot like high school. There are cliques and drama, but at the end of the day, the greater group does everything together, making the work more enjoyable and gratifying.
Staff writing in the spring of 2024 got me out and brought me to events I would’ve never heard of otherwise. As associate life editor, I’ve barely been in my 180-square-foot prison cell of a dorm this year, preferring to spend time with my newfound friends or in the DC building.
This trend began before the fall 2024 semester even started. I signed up for a leadership retreat that let me move in a week early and spend eight hours a day with the incoming executives of The Daily Campus and others student organizations. We were the first UConn students to discover how Connecticut Dining Hall is mid as hell, and we got paid to group bond for a week.
It was also my first semester being a copy editor. The seven-hour bender for the Freshman Issue was quite the kicker. Having already workshopped the Life articles for the day, my “partner in print” Ben Lassy and I could lock into the rest of the pages, though Ben tended to do most of the work.
Needless to say, shifts ran late, and we often bought D.P. Dough since dining halls aren’t open past 10 p.m. When campus Wi-Fi went out, the two of us and Managing Editor Connor Lafferty sprinted to Monteith to get the pages to our printer before the deadline. Even the other day, the three of us and Ayyan Tamjeed went to the Armory after midnight to play basketball. There are many more invaluable memories I could list here, but I tried to keep it short and sweet.
Heading into a counseling master’s at Central Connecticut State University, I’m happy my effort will be spent more towards developing my future career. While my cohort for the program looks promising, a sliver of my soul will be stuck with The Daily Campus for a long time. Hanging out seemed to be No. 1 on everyone’s priority list, so I’m going to yearn for that constant connection like Steve yearns for the mines in “A Minecraft Movie.”
As long as we’re printing, there will be a stigma about the newspaper being nerdy — reading or contributing to it in any way. Despite my full embrace of being a music and video game nerd, even I was reluctant to immerse myself in a newspaper organization after Ben recruited me in fall 2023.
Believe it or not, I don’t even like journalism! Interviews are out of my comfort zone and I’m getting absolutely cooked in my journalism class, but the DC will help you become a better journalist if that’s what you’re looking for. Above all that, it provides a sense of community and belonging that I’m convinced anywhere else on campus cannot compete with.
I’ve had many problematic friendships during college, most of which were outside of UConn. Not once at The Daily Campus have I felt wronged, taken advantage of or unappreciated, which has led me to rethink my former isolationist ways. My co-workers are now my best friends, and it’ll be harder to link up with them once I’m at home, but I understand how special our bond is.
As an outcast who will continue struggling to make new friends, I implore you to give us a shot. There are innumerable students here who will make you feel at home in this imposing world of Storrs, Conn. Maybe The Daily Campus will be your one-stop shop for UConn extracurriculars.