The California Aggie has grown so much this year, all thanks to your support
Dear Readers,
Firstly, thank you for your continued support and readership. For the last 100+ years, this newspaper has been serving the campus and local community — we are proud to be your trusted source of news in Davis. Believe it or not we are quickly approaching our last few issues of the academic year. Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere, but the end of this school year is almost here. That being said, I wanted to write this letter to highlight some of our accomplishments and share some updates with you.
On May 7, the ASUCD Senate passed our 2025-2026 operational budget. One of my goals as Editor-in-Chief this year has been to be transparent. So I admit, the budget process was not an easy accomplishment, but it is one we take pride in. Frankly said, without your continuous support, we wouldn’t be where we are.
We had reason for serious concern regarding support for our proposed budget before the first round of budget hearings, so we responded with an editorial explaining the process and calling for ASUCD to support our operations. Our editorial was signed in support by several student newspapers including: UC Irvine’s New University, UC San Diego’s Guardian, UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian and UCLA’s Daily Bruin. The New University even wrote an editorial of their own regarding our print operations.
It’s been a long journey, but we are proud to share that next year we will be able to maintain our print operations and compensate our staff. I’m proud to share that next year we will be reintroducing paid positions that had been lost in the previous years. Thanks to your support we will be able to hire a new media manager, a videographer, an assistant layout manager, paid assistant editors and more. If you’re interested in any of these roles be sure to follow https://vacancy.ucdavis.edu.
In other news, we also recently hosted our first alumni conference. Our panel consisted of Sacramento Bee Visuals Editor Nathaniel Levine, former Editor of the Almanac Angela Swartz and Pulitzer Prize Winner / San Francisco Chronicle Investigative Reporter Matthias Gafni — all California Aggie alumni. I’m grateful for all those who could attend and forever thankful to our staff who helped me organize this event. This was certainly one of my highlights during my time at The Aggie.
I’ve dedicated myself to this newspaper for the last four years and I’m proud to share that in my time as Editor-in-Chief I’ve seen our newspaper grow so much. In my time at this paper, one thing has been constant: we have some of the most talented staff and loyal readers that any publication could wish for. I don’t anticipate this changing anytime soon. If this is my last letter from the editor, I’d just like to say thank you.
Maybe you only pick up this paper for the crossword, maybe you’re a Davisite who reads us every Thursday, whoever you are, this newspaper will always be for you. No matter who you are, dear reader, thank you.
Best,
Chris Ponce
Editor-in-Chief
If you ever wish to reach out to me, please send me an email at editor@theaggie.org.
