Paper Trails

How the Daily Bruin Became a Training Ground for Leadership and One of the Best-Known College Newspapers in America

Boom Time

Copyright © 1968 Time Inc. Reprinted by permission.

In 1968, Time magazine went looking for the archetype of collegiate rebelliousness, the personification of the tension, social awareness and political indignation fomenting on American campuses. "Some of these graduates will become draft dodgers. Many smoke pot. Fewer remain virginal," the magazine reported. "Yet it is also true that the cutting edge of this class includes the most conscience-stricken, moralistic and, perhaps, the most promising graduates in U.S. academic history."

The national newsweekly bypassed the likes of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, who also were college seniors then. The magazine wanted the tiny editor (5' 7" and 125 pounds) of a student newspaper on the Left Coast. Daily Bruin chief Brian Weiss '68 was the student on the June 7, 1968, cover of Time. Mortarboard and gown, tassels hanging to the left, Weiss bore a scruffy beard and dangled a peace-sign pendant from his neck. His mug was accompanied by the question: CAN YOU TRUST ANYONE UNDER 30?

Likely not. But the students could. And according to the Time article, Weiss was so influential that students called the Daily Bruin the Daily Brian. Though often the subjects of his scornful pen, administrators also respected Weiss. "Chancellor Franklin Murphy," Time reported, "praises Weiss as a conscientious editor who has made the paper ‘a provocative and enzymatic force on campus.' "

For Weiss, it was no stroll through the Sculpture Garden. He was the typical Daily Bruin staffer — studying something besides journalism, working for peanuts, morally determined.

"People were there because things were happening at the paper and the paper played an important role of being a voice for people on campus," Weiss says. The paper was deeply caught up in antiwar coverage, and Weiss was flying each month to San Francisco for Regents meetings, not to mention overseeing the production of each day's paper. "It was a little nuts. There was, of course, class — some of us went occasionally."

— B.G.

Published Jan 1, 2007 8:00 AM