for shame...

I hate school newspapers. seriously. The Daily Chronicle at the U of U was bad enough. Every day the writers bemoaned the difficulties of living as a non-mormon in the oppresive Utah atmosphere. Difficulties include alcohol limits in beer, friendly smiles, courteous drivers, and the required institute class attendance for institute parking. (Shocking, I know)

Even worse is BYU's paper, the Daily Universe, consisting of heated debates over whether drinking Coke and Dr Pepper is against the word of wisdom, How-To articles on getting started on your genealogy, "Tunnel Singing", and the weekly schedule for night-games.

However, UCSB's paper, The Daily Nexus, is the worst thing I've seen yet. It is absolutely ridiculous. I am ashamed of it! UCSB's materials department ranks 3rd in the nation, all they've talked about since we first came during recruitment week is what an amazing institution of higher learning it is. And then you open the paper and the first thing you see is a graphically obscene comic depicting "ballcuzzi" and a whole page article on the Do's and Don'ts of "Ballcuzzi." You see once a week "the Wednesday Hump" malinforms the entire student body of the purpose of sexuality. Topics range from prostitutes, porn, cybersex, shaving and a whole range of filth I won't even mention. No wonder UCSB has the (unconfirmed) reputation of having the highest concentration of STD's than any other university. Other weekly columnist focuses on his unashamed illegal drug use. Just last week the article was a full page explanation of how to pass your company's random drug tests using a ziploc bag full of your friends urine duct taped to your stomach. Another drug article insisted that a few beers actually made the writer a better driver and advocated drunk-driving. I won't even delve into the horrors of the political or opinion articles, I might develop a heart condition. The annoyance finally became unbearable last week when UCSB hosted a huge Energy Technologies conference though. The writer they had cover the important conference was an absolute moron. The article had a few definitions for those who aren't familiar with the energy technology lingo. My favorites were (1) Methane: a potent greenhouse gas. and (2) Fuel Cell Technology: Works like batteries but more stable. Wow... I'm speechless. I read the full list to many of my fellow Materials Engineering graduate students and reactions ranged from shock to laughter to outright depression" These are the morons who will approve our funding someday?" Unfortunately that's all too possible.

seriously? Are you kidding me? They brag about what an amazing academic institution this is and then they have uninformed garbage in every newspaper misinforming all those who are unfortunate enough to pick it up. And in rebuttal all they say is "Nobody makes you read it" Sure, but if I'm the UCSB board of regents and I realize that the UCSB newspaper has it's name on it and is produced by the University, I'd at least want it to represent the values that the school espouses. Which apparently is blatant drug use, sex, beer-pong, and "progressive, liberated thought."Ok,I had to get that out of my system, now I can go back to studying for my 200B midterm. (a much better use of my time)