Abhishek Shetty: Ackerman’s aesthetic renovations should not be priority given projected losses

Amid million-dollar losses, increasing labor costs and faltering book sales, you wouldn’t expect Associated Students UCLA to be spending money on renovating bathroom tiles to aesthetically match the outside flooring. But that’s exactly what the association has planned in the future. ASUCLA announced at the beginning of fall quarter that it expected its Services and […]

Throwback Thursday: The Bel Air fire of 1961

Throwback Thursdays are our chance to reflect on past events on or near campus and relate them to the present day. Each week, we showcase and analyze an old article from the Daily Bruin archives in an effort to chronicle the campus’ history. Fires ravaged Northern California and Orange County earlier this year, destroying thousands […]

Abhishek Shetty: UCSA should not advocate for increased taxes in hopes of free tuition

The University of California Student Association is one of the primary groups advocating for UC students, but it might need some help focusing on what to advocate for. UCSA, an organization composed of UC student leaders, voted during its board meeting earlier this month to include the goal of eliminating all UC tuition and fees […]

Throwback Thursday: ASUCLA has looked to food outlets to save it from debt for over 20 years

Two things are often certain for the Associated Students Union: losses and failed food outlets. ASUCLA announced last week that it expected to lose more than $1 million this year. Robert Williams, ASUCLA’s executive director, pointed towards increasing labor costs and lower textbook sales as the main reasons for the losses. To improve their budget, […]

Abhishek Shetty: USAC must update online minutes, guidelines to maintain transparency

Maintaining an up-to-date website and uploading meeting documents regularly are simple and obvious steps any student government should follow. But unfortunately, UCLA’s undergraduate student government has treated them as an afterthought for years. Late last month, Vivy Li, the Undergraduate Students Association Council internal vice president, prompted the council to revisit the terms of USAC […]

Abhishek Shetty: Mayor should focus on city, not on building national political image

Placing bumper stickers on cars won’t transform you from a relatively unknown mayor to the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic primary winner. That’s a message that needs to be sent to whichever swing state or donor’s house Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is in right now. In August, Garcetti traveled across the country to Manchester, New […]

Abhishek Shetty: Newsom’s support of start-ups contradicts his campaign stance

If your spokesperson says that Davos, the annual World Economic Forum gathering of wealthy elites in Switzerland, is where you get many of your ideas from, you need to be as far away from politics as possible. Instead, Gavin Newsom, California’s lieutenant governor, is running in the 2018 California gubernatorial race. The former two-term San Francisco […]