This Week in the News serves as The Quad’s space for reflection on current events at and around UCLA. Every week, Daily Bruin staffers will analyze some of the most significant stories to keep readers up to speed.
Week eight has been chock full of transitions for the UCLA community, the CARE program, Resident Government Councils and Game of Thrones fans. Here’s the Quad’s rundown of this week’s biggest news.
Winter has come: UCLA community evaluates ‘Game of Thrones’ impact, explores what’s next
About 17 million fans tuned in for the season eight premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” and continued to tune in to new episodes each Sunday. The third episode of the final season won the title of most tweeted-about episode of scripted television ever, with nearly 8 million tweets.
Not only has the show garnered over 52 million tweets in four months, but it also captured the imaginations of viewers for eight years now with its fantasy medieval setting and representation of trans-temporal human conflict. UCLA Byzantine art and archaeology professor Sharon Gerstel said that medieval power struggles within the series are used as a lens for viewing human conflict, a topic that transcends time.
Medievalist Kersti Francis further connects the show to the modern age, adding that the wall separating the people of Westeros from the wildlings in “Game of Thrones” can be seen as an allegory for Donald Trump’s immigration policy. The medieval lens makes it easier to view familiar concepts without appearing overtly political.
CARE program undergoes transition period in search for new director, staff
Former Campus Assault Resources & Education director Alicia Oeser’s contract was not renewed earlier this month, leaving CARE to interim director Nicole Green.
Some students and staff who have interacted with Oeser at CARE feel that her work has been left unfinished. They voiced concerns that such an important role has been left to a contracted position rather than a permanent one.
Green, the UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services executive director, said students can email her to join the search committee for a new director once the position is open for hire. CARE is also looking to hire more staff with experience in social work and psychology, and administrators hope to finalize personnel by fall.
UCLA professor emeritus sentenced to eight years in prison for sexual assault
Former UCLA professor Thomas Fairleigh Denove was sentenced Tuesday to six years in state prison for long-term sexual abuse of one child and an additional two years for a lewd act on another child. Both children were under the age of 14.
The sentencing took place at Van Nuys Courthouse West. The survivors’ grandmother read a statement from the survivors’ mother stating that justice has been served.
Denove was a professor in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and had been out on $2 million bail since November 2018.
Amendments to housing, residential councils’ constitution include change to stipends
Over the summer, ResLife eliminated around seven student representative positions under each Resident Government Council. With this restructuring came more money and more responsibility for the remaining council positions.
The constitution was ratified to include retroactive stipends for members, effective fall 2018, increasing individual compensation from $300 to $400 per quarter, and to $500 with fall training.
Some On-Campus Housing Council positions, such as financial director, will also be paid less in the future. However, stipends will not be retroactively retracted.
ResLife publicly discussed the changes, but they also claimed that not many students expressed interest in attending open meetings concerning the amendments.
New UCLA policy requires gender-inclusive amenities on campus
Proposed Policy 890 will require gender-inclusive facilities in every building on campus, according to Tuesday’s emailed announcement from assistant vice chancellor of Facilities Management Kelly Schmader. These facilities will be marked with textual signs, rather than gender-referencing pictograms.
Under the policy, existing one-person, gender-specific restrooms will be renovated to become one-person, gender-inclusive restrooms. Additionally, all new buildings must plan for multiple-occupancy, gender-inclusive restrooms and gender-inclusive changing rooms and showers in buildings where gender-specific changing rooms and showers are available.