Another turbulent year at the University of Connecticut has ended. Between administrative email leaks, a national championship basketball game and some uncertainty on the future of higher education, The Daily Campus has weathered it all. And of course, in every issue of the paper, we’ve had the Life section to add some much-needed fondness and student perspective.
If there’s anything Life can be most proud of this year, it’s our writers. As with all student organizations, participation tends to dip towards the end of the year. Despite this, the Life section has found an incredibly talented team of writers who have stuck with the paper through it all. We have an exceptional squad of staff writers, and we’re looking forward to having our contributors with us as we enter the next academic year!
And with this team of writers, Life has seen a huge increase in content. The Sports section typically has the most articles in each iteration of the paper, but Life has taken that crown on more than one occasion. From event coverage to roundtables to columns and more, Life has found its footing as a substantial and essential piece of The Daily Campus.
We’ve seen 10 original column ideas from the writers of the Life section. Spanning from media reviews, musician features, cooking advice, history and more — each appearing weekly in the paper.
The columns have also been a chance to show off a partnership between sections. Life has collaborated with the Artist section to create astounding visuals. Not only do these works of art act as logos for columns, but they often accompany the event coverage that acts as the beating Lifeblood of the section. We’re also happy to have been working so closely with the Photo section. We can write about an event all we want, but Photo always brings in the visual aid needed to really push a story forward.
Event coverage is an important chunk of the paper, and we’re glad to have written these kinds of articles so diligently. Life is ultimately a look into what it means to be a UConn student, and we hope that showing off these events and promoting student voices has been able to capture that spirit.
To write about all the topics listed above, Life has gathered once a week in The Daily Campus building, conveniently located near Moe’s, Playa Bowl, Square Peg and more. Look, we get hungry. Every Sunday meeting with the Life section has been a joy to attend. Each session begins with a “Lifebreaker” — the standard ice breakers we all know and love, but with strange questions and even stranger responses. Some of our most iconic icebreakers have included budget GeoGuessr, discussions of Bill Gates’s combat ability and the infamous “What’s your problem?”
We’ve also elevated our meetings by discussing everyone’s favorite musical duo: the Costco Guys. They may be ridiculous, but so is the Life section, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s possible we’ll give it a rest, it’s possible we won’t, but there will definitely be another Costco Guys roundtable at some point.
As the future Life editors, we’d also like to thank our outgoing editors, Ben and James. The pair had a vision to make Life even more dynamic and exciting, and they did so excellently. We’ll miss this iconic duo of editors, and we can’t wait to see what they do next.
We’d like to congratulate all our graduating seniors — Ben, James, Naiiya, Desirae and Justine — for their participation in Life. They’re all incredibly talented people who will go far, and we’re glad that you decided to spend a portion of your time with us.
We’re also thankful for all of our contributors this year, whether or not they stayed until the very end. Life wouldn’t survive without your efforts. And to our regular writers, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. For those returning, see you in a few months!
Another round of thank yous to the production and executive teams of The Daily Campus. The paper would quite literally be nothing without you. We’d also like to apologize for every time an article has been late. And no, we are not going to apologize for the Costco Guys-related content.
And finally, thank you to our readers! When it comes down to it, the content we write is for you, not us. Hopefully you enjoyed what we’ve written this year. If you’re interested, we’re always accepting new members.
As this chapter of Life closes, we’re ready to look ahead. We’ve got a lot of ideas and only two semesters to execute on them, so expect a section operating at full steam ahead. Thanks for sticking around — we’ll see you in August.
Live and let Life,
Dan and Sam