Monday, April 1, 1996Honor Ashe
Editor:
As a die-hard UCLA tennis fan, and a life-long activist, I
humbly submit that the L.A. Tennis Center be renamed the Arthur
Ashe L.A. Tennis Center.
I believe that a democratic vote of UCLA faculty, staff and
students would support this name change. UCLA’s other illustrious
tennis alumnus, Jimmy Conners, would approve wholeheartedly.
D.J. Schulte
Vietnam vet activist
Job-hunt caution
Editor:
Recently, I had a very strange experience looking for a job. I
answered a message I got on my e-mail about a marketing company
that had part- and full-time positions available. I called the
number and got a hold of a sales representative for Equinox
products at the Brentwood Marketing Group.
I went in for what I thought was going to be an interview, but
what I later learned was one long-winded sales pitch. They weren’t
offering me a job; they were trying to sell me a job.
This is what happened: I filled out an application because, at
that point, I still wasn’t sure about things. When I realized the
application was strange (no section for work experience, it was
called an "Application and AGREEMENT"), I wanted it back.
To cut a long story short, I asked the woman telling me about
the company to return my application, so I could drop it off if I
became interested. She didn’t want to give it back to me, offering
to throw it away for me; I had to pull it out of her hands. After I
got up to leave, she followed me and made several demands to get
the application back, even physically standing in front of the open
elevator to prevent me from getting in. But there was no way I was
going to give her something that I had already signed. Even after I
tore it in half, she wanted the pieces.
The lesson I learned: "Don’t sign ANYTHING without reading it
first!" By signing the application, I also would have subscribed to
Equinox’s magazine for a fee of $49.95. There were also several
binding agreements written on the back. If I had let that woman
"throw away" my application for me, I’m sure she would have thrown
it straight to the processing center and started billing me the
moment I left.
I know there are a lot of students out there looking for jobs,
but you have to be careful. There are many people like these trying
to swindle you out of your money. I’m sure it’s all legal; it’s
just written in fine print.
A few things to remember when looking for jobs: 1) Do not sign
anything without fully reading it. 2) Take it home and bring it
back if you have to, but don’t sign without knowing what you’re
signing for. 3) If you sense a shady situation, leave. Make an
excuse, get up and leave. My situation got very shady at one point,
so I excused myself and left.
If anyone else out there got the same e-mail I did, IGNORE IT!
It’s not worth your time. All that the sales representative,
Equinox and the Brentwood Marketing Group want are a few naive
people they can take advantage of. And they almost did it to
me.
Anyway, good luck with the job-hunt and be careful.
Raphael A. Gutierrez
Fourth-year
Psychology
Save the earth
Editor:
If somebody wanted to begin to understand the hypocrisy at the
core of our environmental crisis as it exists in Los Angeles in
1996, one need look no further than the front page of the Daily
Bruin on March 11.
UCLA announced the founding of the Institute of the Environment,
a bold new program "to find solutions to current environmental
problems" ("Environmental courses in the work," March 11). The
institute will want to begin its vital work by questioning UCLA’s
partnership with the Playa Vista/Dreamworks development planned for
Playa del Rey, a very serious and current environmental problem
("UCLA joins Dream Team at Playa Vista location," March 11). How
convenient.
Professor Richard Turco, who will head the institute, claims
that "UCLA has a unique combination of highly talented people to
develop solutions to these problems." We might not need to develop
solutions if we didn’t create problems in the first place. UCLA is
in the position of supporting the development of what will become
the fourth largest polluter in Los Angeles built on "one of the
largest undeveloped areas in a major urban center." This large
undeveloped area not only provides much needed, uncongested
breathing room for residents and commuters, but also provides home
for 129 bird species, 25 fish species, 19 mammals and much other
wildlife. The Playa Vista/Dreamworks development will mean the
death or displacement of these species, intensified abuse of the
bay, increased traffic, noise and smog. The bottom line is that
nobody is forcing Dreamworks and the developers to strangle and
suffocate one of California’s last coastal wetlands with concrete.
But because they do not care about the environment, they will.
Does UCLA care about the environment? Yes, I believe it does.
But "playing a major role in (Playa Vista’s) health care and
education" is not a way to demonstrate that care. When will we
learn that we can’t keep destroying the earth as we presume to save
it? I applaud UCLA’s Institute of the Environment. But until such
lofty aspirations are actually manifest in our actions,
decision-making and choice of projects, front page headlines like
these cry out for an Institute for Cynicism Management.
David Beckman
Citizens United To Save
All Of Ballona
Housing protest
Editor:
The article, "UCLA officials predict houses will sell" in the
March 11 Daily Bruin promoted the university’s duty to provide
housing for student families as a business venture rather than a
service for students. In addition, Daily Bruin reporter Lia Ramsey
celebrates the use of nonunion workers, supposedly to keep student
prices down.
Since moving into UCLA’s family housing, I have become convinced
that the purpose of family housing is FOR PROFIT and NOT to provide
affordable and conducive student housing. The wait lists seem to
ignore undergraduate married couples in favor of foreign students
who pay nonresident tuition, which is much higher than the tuition
of resident Californians. The housing has a wait list that is
supposedly full, yet after months of waiting, stern pressure from
myself and others in similar positions magically created
vacancies.
Family housing is absolutely dominated by visiting foreign
students, while resident families, who subsidize the UC system
through taxes, live in Inglewood, the Valley, East Los Angeles,
Hawthorne and Los Angeles.
Since first moving in, our rent has risen from $596 to $614 and
is expected to rise 3 percent, plus $8 for cable  meaning
$640 a month. The increase is partially attributed to the cost of
building new apartments, which Ramsey claims was made cheaper by
traditional American union busting. These new apartments start at a
$179 increase on our original rent, a $161 increase of what we now
pay, and a $135 increase on what we will pay after the next
increase. The cheapest new one-bedroom apartment will be $79 more
than what we originally paid for a two-bedroom.
As statewide tuition has increased 134 percent since 1990, the
rising cost of living (including rent) is often neglected. My wife
and I work 20-25 hours a week, attend UCLA full time, receive
financial aid and still must take out students loans. Our parents
are not in a position to help us, and we barely squeak by. It is
this kind of story that leadd to the 200,000 students who dropped
out of the California university system since 1992, mostly people
of color. All the while, grumpy, old men talk of how they worked
their way through college. Sure, when tuition was $400 and minimum
wage was $2.35.
With the abolishment of affirmative action, raising tuition,
rent and general cost of living, the UC system is systematically
reducing the access and opportunity of people of color and the poor
to higher education at all levels!
Javier Gonzalez
AKA "Withholding Rent"Comments to
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