Over the years the paper took stances supporting the demands for the building of UBC campus at Point Grey and the right of Japanese-Canadians to continue their studies after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

E. C. Pappert was then the faculty advisor with direct editorial control over the student newspaper at Assumption College in Windsor, which had been ranked bottom in that survey.

In 1959 the entire staff was fired by the Alma Mater Society (AMS) when a photo was published during the Easter period showing a UBC student crucified on a totem pole.

Recent examples included The Grope and Flail, The Georgian Taint, Sports Inundated, Breitbarf, NICE Magazine, and a nude calendar spoofing a fundraising effort by the UBC men's rugby team.

In 1974, a report, quoting the Pope, that Patty Hearst had given a speech to students in the Totem Park cafeteria prompted the arrival on campus of a KOMO-TV news team from Seattle which had taken it seriously.

This proved the final straw, and the AMS council passed a motion to give itself the sole power to choose the paper's editor-in-chief, who would then select all other editors.

They formed the nonprofit Ubyssey Publications Society and placed a referendum question on the AMS elections ballot on reviving the paper as an independent entity, funded by a $5 fee from which students could opt out.

The Ubyssey fought to force details of the confidential deal to be made public through a freedom of information request which was denied on the basis that it would harm the university's financial interests.

The Ubyssey filed a lawsuit and the case eventually reached the Supreme Court of British Columbia which overturned the initial decision, with the deal finally being made public in May 2001.

Notable writers throughout its history include Pierre Berton, John Turner, Allan Fotheringham, Michael Valpy, Joe Schlesinger, Stephen Scobie, Bruce Arthur, Justin McElroy and Earle Birney.