Author Archives: Katie Shepherd

Katie Shepherd: EVP Office support for Prop. 13 reform misguided

“Simply put, California is broke.” The statement, pulled directly from an event page on Facebook put up by the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s External Vice President Office, offers a sweeping explanation for the University of California’s inflated tuition rates. This particular statement, as with many others in the event’s description, is flatly misleading. To address […]

Katie Shepherd: New position’s efficacy depends on guidelines

Following a quarter marked by student protests and condemning reports, Chancellor Gene Block announced last month a new administrative position to address issues of equity and inclusion, ostensibly a step toward a more accepting and diverse UCLA community. But whether this step will improve the campus climate, as it sets out to do, depends on […]

Katie Shepherd: UC should make exceptions to admissions rules for veterans

There are a lot of things I never got used to growing up in a military family. One of the only aspects of military life that I did learn to expect was its uncertainty: uncertainty in where I would be living in a year, uncertainty in when my father would be returning from overseas, uncertainty […]

Katie Shepherd: Rhetoric used in protest against Proposition 209 misleading, unfair

When it comes to gauging diversity on UCLA’s campus, the numbers don’t lie. After the passage of Proposition 209, a 1996 law that made race-conscious admissions illegal at California public universities, the number of underrepresented students admitted dropped precipitously. In the first freshman class admitted to UCLA without affirmative action, the number of black and Latino students […]

Submission: Affirmative action programs help entire university community

Gender, sexual identity, immigration status, language, national origin and religion – these are all controversial topics that meander into discussions on college campuses. It appears that the issues of race and ethnicity at UCLA have the most controversial connotations. The moderate to low number of black, Native American and Latino students, as well as students from […]