What once was an active, vital cheerleader for student media has become a non-existent entity. This year, the board is up and running, but the road to recovery will require much more time. By far the largest difficulty for alternative media is the budget. To alleviate the budgetary gaps, the papers have turned to advertising, but, for most papers, this has not been very lucrative. In addition to financial concerns, student involvement in these publications has dwindled.
Many publications have very small staffs, which makes publishing difficult.
Since UCI does not have a journalism program or a communications major, students interested in pursuing media must educate themselves. The lack of media-related classes affects the quality of student publications on campus. Beyond the mere staff of a paper, student support has diminished over the years. In order for the newspapers to flourish, other students must read the papers. It may also seem like a trivial point, but location also plays a large role in the proliferation of student media.