"Daily Nexus" lineage can be traced to the Santa Barbara State College student newspaper, "The Eagle", of the 1930s. After the college became part of the UC system in 1944, "The Eagle" evolved under different names — "The Roadrunner", "El Gaucho", "The University Post" and "The Daily Gaucho". The modern "Daily Nexus" emerged from the activism and civil protests of the 1960s-1970s. The newspaper's editors changed the publication's name in 1970 to the "Daily Nexus" to "keep with the changing nature of the university" after protesters burned down the Bank of America building in Isla Vista, a UCSB community neighboring the campus. The 1970-71 editorial board drew inspiration from a quote by Robert Maynard Hutchins: "A free press is the nexus of any democracy".