Casey Kovarik: Clinics must take steps to improve quality of care for Latino patients

Getting medical care in a language you don’t feel comfortable speaking is like driving a stick shift when you don’t know how: difficult and likely to result in errors. Researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine found that while the proportion of Latinos in the U.S. population has grown over the past 30 […]

Casey Kovarik: Miscommunication between UCLA, study abroad students a major frustration

Information on study abroad is getting lost in translation before students set foot in a foreign country. Students planning on studying abroad have to coordinate with their academic department or college, the UCLA study abroad office, the University of California Education Abroad Program and the international school they are studying at before they leave on […]

Casey Kovarik: College-ranking system should consider demographics, mission

Linking college ratings to federal funding is a good idea in theory, but it’s a bit more complicated in practice. Recently the U.S. Department of Education released a framework for a college ratings system that would score colleges and distribute funding based on those ratings. It says it has chosen to create broad ratings that […]

Casey Kovarik: Grand Challenges delay conveys need for small-scale sustainability

Only a year since its launch, UCLA’s Grand Challenges initiative is already behind schedule. Under the theme of “Thriving in a Hotter Los Angeles,” UCLA announced the plan in November 2013 in hopes of achieving 100 percent sustainability in Los Angeles by 2050. The plan consists of numerous projects that aim for improvements in three […]

Ex-Marine student combats injury, hopes to make impact through business

Derek Herrera was in combat when a sniper’s bullet struck him on a Special Operations mission in Afghanistan in June 2012. “It’s inherently risky what we do (in the military),” Herrera said. “That’s one of the reasons the experience is so memorable and meaningful.” The sniper’s bullet left Herrera, now a student in Anderson School […]

UCLA to implement $200 fine for violating dismount zones

University police will start handing out $200 tickets to bikers and skateboarders whizzing through Bruin Walk next week. UCPD officers have stopped students on wheels this past week and given warnings for violating dismount zones to let students know about the change. Tickets for violating the dismount zones are at least $200 and can be […]

TFT alum tells history seventeen years in the making

After seventeen years in the making, Migdia Chinea is finally telling a story of her native Cuba. Chinea, who received a graduate degree in screenwriting from the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA, has worked as a writer on multiple television shows, including “Superboy,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Facts of Life” and “Punky […]