Author Archives: Eitan Arom

It has been more than half a century since R.J. Reynolds ran a television commercial declaring that “more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”

Before landing in your morning cup, your coffee lived a content, if uneventful life as a small, red berry on a small-scale family farm in Asia, Africa or Latin America. About 70 percent of beans are grown on such farms, according to a confederation of 15 anti-poverty organizations.

Seven years ago, on a Thursday night, two crowds of students gathered on opposite sides of Kerckhoff steps to hear the results of the Undergraduate Students Association Council election.

That all but three offices will go uncontested is not the only unique facet of the upcoming Undergraduate Students Association Council election. This year’s contest is taking place in a condition of funding scarcity that may seem like familiar territory for a country steeped in recession, but is new ground for UCLA’s student government.

Last year, the University of California system faced the largest funding cut from the state, in percentage terms, since the Great Depression, according to Todd Greenspan, director of academic planning at the UC Office of the President. The year before that, tuition surpassed state contributions as the primary funding source for the UC.

When the UCLA undergraduate student body votes next month whether or not to approve a fee increase of $3, generations of students for years to come will be affected by that decision. But don’t worry, UCLA. No pressure.