Week 1
In this article of The Daily Bruin, student journalist Kate Bergfeld writes about the expected upcoming success for the UCLA women’s gymnastics team. Bergfeld shares plenty of background information on the team’s success, including how when their top scorers were sick with the flu, many young athletes made their college debut. With plenty of depth in the team, these new athletes earned their stripes with some pretty high scoring, proving how much they deserved their spot. Bergfeld then goes on to discuss the success of Senior Jordan Chiles, who is widely known as one of the best gymnasts in college gymnastics considering she had an Olympic debut in 2024. Bruins fans are excited for their next meet at home against Washington, and the anticipation for winning is high. This meet is especially meaningful as it will be celebrating pride in the Bruins community, which will also serve as an homage to Bruins LQBTQ alumni that have come out to the public and of course, those who may come out in the future.
Delilah Brumer and Maggie Konecky share the story of how UCLA students participated in a walkout to protest against ICE. This walkout was organized by several of the university’s organizations, allowing for a full team effort in the anti-ICE protest. Many of those who walked were protesting out of fear for themselves, their loved ones, and those they see everyday in class. Prior to the walkout, the same organizations held a vigil to honor those who were murdered by ICE in the recent days. There was another walkout earlier in the week as well, which highlights the significance of the issue at hand, and proves that the students of UCLA will not stand for what is occurring in our country. Brumer and Konecky got quotes from the heads of these organizations, and some students who may be personally at risk with the presence of ICE. All of which shared a very similar message, that citizens should not be living in the fear that ICE is causing.
Week 2
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Josephine Murphy writes about how a UCLA donor and alumnus was discovered to be included in the Epstein files. Casey Wasserman, owner of a self-named foundation that has provided millions of dollars to the university, was discovered to be sharing sexual messages with Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for her involvement with Jefferey Epstein’s disgusting acts towards many children, seemed to reciprocate the messages, which suggests some sort of relationship between the two. Wasserman has responded to the accusations of his involvement or knowledge of anything that Epstein was doing, and denies having any sort of involvement in the horrible acts. He even apologized for having any connection to them at all, which leaves many wondering how much of the truth he’s actually telling. UCLA finds some concern with these claims as well, considering he is one of their largest donors, and attended the university itself.
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Grant Walters discusses how the UCLA men’s basketball team fell short in their game against Indiana in double-overtime. It’s easily understood that their coach, Mick Cronin, was highly unhappy about their broken winning streak, as he references “playing it out” as the only thing his team did well with at their Saturday game. Considering the double-overtime, fans believed the Bruins would pull off a miraculous comeback that would allow them to overtake the Hoosiers, but they were left sadly disappointed. Walters mentions that the Bruins had a three game winning streak prior to their loss, but they would be expected to claim another victory against Rutgers, who has yet to win on the road this season. Many of the Bruins upperclassmen players believe that their team has learned from the mistakes of their loss, and will fight even harder with a better understanding of their own weaknesses.
Week 3
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Lilly Wellons writes about the UCLA men’s volleyball team and their great success against Long Beach State, who had beaten them in the 2025 NCAA championship game. The Bruins had a 3-2 reverse sweep against their rival, which forced them to really fight for the win. Long Beach kept a lot of pressure on UCLA with their serving, which forced UCLA out of system frequently enough to prevent them from winning the first two sets. This game was especially important to junior libero, Christopher Connelly, who transferred from Long Beach last year and was finally able to play after being red-shirted. Playing his old team, Connelly held strong in the back row and allowed for the Bruins to start setting up some plays. With inclusion of quotes from upperclassman starters, and head coach John Hawks, the team seems pretty pleased with their Friday night outcome.
This article of the Daily Bruin is the first feature I have looked at. Alexandra Crosnoe covers the story of Jordan Chiles, a UCLA gymnast who is well known for her participation in this past Olympic Games. Being her last year of college gymnastics, she has the goal of breaking the NCAA perfect ten record, which is at a high bar of 14 perfect tens. Her coaches seem to fully believe she’s capable of doing so, and her whole team is backing her up as well. With all her success in the past few years, between competing in the Olympics and publishing some work of her own, she is fully intending giving everything towards reaching this goal. Chiles is known for being the loudest one cheering on the sidelines, and fighting for what she believes in, such as when was stripped of her Olympic bronze medal and had to request an appeal in Swiss court. This feature then goes on to name many of her Chiles’ other achievements, including some of her recent scores that may lead her to breaking this perfect ten record.
Week 4
https://dailybruin.com/2026/02/15/ucla-womens-basketball-defeats-indiana-with-44-point-gap
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Kai Dizon reports on the status of the UCLA woman’s basketball team, particularly on their win against Indiana on Sunday. The team demonstrated their depth despite being pretty upperclassman heavy, with their very few freshmen showing out in the absolute blowout of a game. Multiple players ended the game with 10+ points each, and reminded their fans why they’re ranked 2nd. This game also held some more importance as it was the Bruins’ “Play4Kay” game in honor of Kay Yow, a legendary woman’s basketball coach who passed away from stage 4 breast cancer. The team wore bright pink shoes to honor her, and was supposedly granted “flamingo-like balance” from the shoes, according to Dizon. Through all of UCLA’s hard work, they have cinched their first ever No.1 seed in the Big Ten tournament. Their coaches, who have made their faith in this team clear from the beginning, expressed their sheer pride and unwavering belief in these girls.
In this relatively grim article of the Daily Bruin, Maggie Konecky shares how a former UCLA employee was convicted of child abuse. Christopher Rodriguez, a teacher at UCLA Krieger Early Care and Education Center, failed to appear in court after being convicted of willful child abuse and sexual battery. He was sentenced to seven year sin county jail in June after a jury trial last April. He filed to appeal his conviction, which was granted and he was released with the requirement of appearing in court. Rodriguez has been registered as a sex offender and many are hoping his failure to appear in court will force the court to dismiss his appeal. Neither Rodriguez or his lawyer commented on the situation, despite being asked to provide a statement. His employment lasted nearly 25 years, and the UCLA community is highly upset with what occurred at the Early Care and Education Center.
Week 5
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Emily Berkowitz shares the heartwarming story of a comedy show raising funds for the UCLA children’s hospital. The comedy show was hosted by Laughter is the Cure and was headlined by famous comedian, Morgan Jay. The event sold out, with about 100 people in the audience, The show hosted a few other well known comedians such as, Arijana Ramic, Martin Urbano and magician Aidan Corcoran. Nicholas Tenaglia was the host of this show, and riffed a little bit of his work prior to the other comedians. Some audience members went on record to discuss their thoughts on the overall show, many of which shared their entertainment and satisfaction. The comedians shared the fun they had at this show, and knowing they were participating in a fundraiser made it all that much more special. Those who held the event on behalf of Laughter is the Cure hope that this event will spark a butterfly effect of giving back to the community and those who need our help.
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Ruby Galbraith shares how the former Chief Financial Officer dropped the bomb that UCLA has been running an annual budget deficit of $400 million dollars, and have been for some time. He claimed that UCLA had a faulty management system running their financial office. UCLA denied these claims, which brings us to Michael Beck, the current UCLA Vice Chancellor. He has shown a theme of refusing to answer student questions about the university’s spending, and has sponsored multiple pricey projects that have brought no real value to the school. He doesn’t have a great track record either, Galbraith reports that during his time as a city manager for Pasadena, another city employee embezzled over 6 million dollars from the city. Students are outraged at his lack of answers, and choice to only provide general statements to their burning questions over what their tuition is paying for.
Week 6
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Lilly Leonhardt reports on President Trump’s demands to revoke any sort of initiatives allowing transgender UCLA students to have equal rights and advocacy. He also demanded the school pay over $1 billion dollars in a claims fund for those who were supposedly affected by Title VII. These demands came after freezing $584 million in UCLA federal research funding. UCLA administration is not accepting these demands and instead got the law involved. These demands were decided to be illegal, and the suspended federal research funding was restored and unfrozen. Students are worried that these demands from Trump are just the beginning, and that they were try countless amount of times to limit health care and equality for any transgender students. Some clubs and groups at UCLA are limiting their exposure of their LGBTQ members to keep their anonymity out of worry that posting about their peers will be targeted.
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Connor Dullinger shares the status of the UCLA men’s basketball team. The Bruins gained their third top-10 win against Nebraska in a 20 point upset on Tuesday night. Students discussed their anticipation for the win, as UCLA has a reputation for winning on their home court pretty frequently. Nebraska’s defense was nowhere near where it needed to be in order to handle the Bruins. This was not a problem for the Bruins however, as their defense was nearly unbreakable. Sophomore, Trent Perry, was fully locked in due to his lack of performance against Minnesota, and ended up getting 20 points. Head Coach, Mick Cronin, shared his pride for his team, and how they have battled during each and every game. He believes that his team has the most consistency in their offense, which is often hard to defend when each player works together.
Week 7
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Aaron Propst discusses the outcome of the UCLA baseball team’s home opener this past weekend. The Bruins swept Ohio State, earning a combined over 30 runs just during the first two games. The played on the road, forcing Ohio to take 3 consecutive losses on their home field. Their 3rd game being a little bit too close for comfort, but still a win nonetheless. The Bruins coach acknowledges that his team will have to remain vigilant if they want a chance at winning the league, especially games on the road. Upperclassmen led the game, including juniors Mulivai Levu and Landon Stump and sophomore Wylan Moss. Levu had a two-run home run, which provided the Bruins their first lead of the game. The Bruins will next face UC Irvine for their 50th matchup in program history. The game is expected to be a solid one, given their history and almost identical all-time records.
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Maggie Konecky updates her readers about the former UCLA teacher who was convicted of sexual abuse(a piece I covered previously). The issue during this piece is that parents are very upset at the lack of information they’ve been provided by the school. When the ex-teacher failed to show up in court this past month, parents would have expected an update from the school and were poorly mistaken when they didn’t receive any sort of news. Some parents worry that former students could be at risk when it comes to Christopher Rodriguez’s case, as they may have some information worth being questioned. The school claims to only be able to provide limited information to the worried parents due to legality reasons, but many wonder why they can’t share news that is already available to the public. Parents also share that they were suspicious of Rodriguez’s ability to supervise the children in his class prior to his arrest, and wonder why the school refuses to acknowledge the situation.
Week 8
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Jaelyn Chung shares the recent successes of the UCLA men’s volleyball team. The Bruins have reached their 18th win in a row, and are looking to keep it going as the season progresses. Their defense has been run by Cameron Thorne, the Bruins’ star middle blocker. They did have a tough competitor most recently, as Hawai’i led the Big West in kills, hitting percentage, assists, and digs. For those that don’t know volleyball, those stats make up majority of the game. Luckily for the Bruins, the Hawai’i players that caused those stats were struggling early in the game, allowing the Bruins to pull ahead. The Rainbow Warriors had to make some major substitutions, but they were far too late and UCLA took them out in 3. Their head coach, John Hawks, has nothing but good things to say about his team. Considering their record and ability to beat some serious leading scorers demonstrates the strength of this team.
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Natalia Mochernak discusses the concerns of UCLA’s budget deficit being even lower than previous estimates. The interim chief financial officer released in an email that UCLA is expected to have a $220 million deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year. This is not necessarily a surprise to many in the UCLA community considering the former CFO, Stephen Agostini was caught for serious financial mismanagement. Financial reports under his authority were admitted to contain multiple false remarks and major errors. These reports range from 2002 all the way to 2023, and left many in the community with seriously incorrect information. Those in authority have been trying to do some serious damage control, by releasing statements about how the school plans to decrease spending without taking away certain things from their students. The school also began a budget group, in hopes to allow some serious focus on the issue at hand, and work on evening out the budget level to a relatively normal rate.
Week 9
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Amanda Velasco shares the concerns UCLA staff has with certain website language in lieu of Trump’s recent DEI crackdown. The websites in conversation demonstrate their support for diversity within the school, however having such openly accessible opinions can be considered a threat to the school because of the recent occurrences. Other staff are worried that changing the language on these websites will prevent students and faculty from learning about the school’s history, which is rooted in activism and support for those who are “different”. Other universities have picked up on this and have begun to remove a lot of their supportive language from their sites as well. Many administrators are worried for their students during this DEI crackdown, but are also disappointed that they can’t outwardly show their support. They are making a point to share with the public that they are worried Trump will see their support as a threat, and they are worried for the safety of their students.
In this article of the Daily Bruin, Jacob Nguyen, Jaelyn Chung, and Steven Chaparyan report out on the UCLA men’s volleyball team’s season and who they predict will be the 2027 breakout star. Both Steven and Jaelyn chose Micah Wong Diallo as their breakout star. They both highlight his incredible defensive ability as a middle blocker, with 49 blocks this season(tripling his last year stats). He also was able to get a pretty solid dig percentage despite being a middle, who wouldn’t specialize in passing. Jacob, however, thinks that Trent Taliaferro will end up being the breakout star this coming season. Trent is a volleyball legacy, and his father Brent had lots of success a Bruin during his college days, and served as an assistant coach in 2023. Taliaferro is younger than the his prospect teammate, and plays a completely different position. As a setter, which is argued to be the most difficult position, he has a little more opportunity to demonstrate his skill and hard work.
