Wednesday, April 9, 1997
‘Fee freeze’ bill moves to Assembly floor
Proponents of affordable higher education won a victory
Wednesday, when Assembly Bill 1318, otherwise known as the College
Affordability Act of 1997, passed out of the Assembly
Appropriations Committee and moved to the Assembly floor.
Sponsored by Lt. Gov. Gray Davis and assemblywoman Denise Moreno
Ducheny, the bill proposes to freeze student fees until the year
2000 and limit fee increases thereafter to the rise in personal
income from the previous year.
"The passage of this proposal is a huge victory for California’s
working families," said assemblywoman Ducheny, who authored the
bill. "Not only will AB1318 halt student fee hikes … it will set
a rational and predictable fee schedule for future
generations."
Several higher-education councils have also backed the bill,
including the California School Employees Association, the
Community College League of California and the California State and
Community College Student Associations.
"Education is the essential passport to a better life," said
Davis, a sponsor of the bill. "This bill ensures that skyrocketing
fees will never again be a barrier to college in California."
The College Affordability Act of 1997 is scheduled to be heard
on the Assembly floor next week.
UCLA awarded $50,000 grant for film festival
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded $50,000 to the
UCLA Film and Television Archive for the Los Angeles Women’s
International Film Festival, set to take place next spring.
The festival, which will be held in association with the
American Cinematheque, will illustrate the diversity of work by
women worldwide through new feature-length and short films in all
genres.
The films will be solicited by archive program curators and
drawn from international film festivals. Filmmakers will be invited
to participate in panel discussions and screenings.
Women all over the world are producing more films than ever
before. The festival will highlight women’s achievements in the
field as well as bring their works to a broader audience.
In recent years, films such as Jane Campion’s "The Piano," Julie
Dash’s "Daughters of the Dust," Agnieszka Holland’s "Angry Harvest"
and Ann Hui’s "Song of Exile" have sought to reconsider history
from the perspective of their women characters.
The vast majority of these films, however, fail to receive
distribution outside their own countries.
Set to take place in spring 1998, the film festival will be open
to the public, with films being screened at the James Bridges
Theater on campus and the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater
in Hollywood.
Study links arts and school achievement
A national study conducted by a UCLA professor documents the
strongest ties yet between involvement in the arts and academic
achievement for middle and high school students. Moreover, the
study found that benefits attributable to the arts cut across
socioeconomic lines.
Professor James S. Catterall, of UCLA’s Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies, found that the nation’s least
affluent students  who generally have the greatest
difficulties succeeding in school  also demonstrate higher
achievement and commitment to their communities when the arts are a
part of their lives.
The study is the first of its kind to provide high-quality,
nationally based numbers showing that the arts matter, and supports
the view that schools should work to increase arts opportunities
for everyone.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff reports.