Guillaume Kosmala: Students must stand against proposals like Measure S

You would be hard-pressed to find a single UCLA student who doesn’t feel that their rent is too high. It’s no secret that renting in Los Angeles is ridiculously expensive, with the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment currently sitting at around $3,000. In Westwood, that number goes up to $4,200. Combine this fact with […]

Guillaume Kosmala: Students will bear the financial burden of Trump’s tax reforms

According to a recent report, the eight richest individuals in the world have as much combined wealth as the poorest 50 percent. In other words, at a small inconvenience to eight inordinately rich men, the living standard of half of the world’s people could be doubled. In fact, new research by economist Thomas Piketty shows […]

Guillaume Kosmala: Easy-A classes perpetuate a broken, grade-centric educational system

Students are under a huge amount of pressure to find new ways to distinguish themselves in an increasingly oversaturated job market. As a result, they naturally gravitate toward any available shortcuts, such as easy-A general education classes. Unfortunately, this results in a world where students sacrifice intellectual exploration in favor of gaming a broken system […]

Guillaume Kosmala: UCLA administration lacks coordination on sustainability projects

While the UCLA community voted overwhelmingly Democratic, 62 million U.S. citizens voted for a president who claims climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese. Now more than ever, local progressive leaders of environmental sustainability need to take bold steps, and it is frustrating to see that the UCLA administration, which needs to be […]

Guillaume Kosmala: California voters have a chance to kill the death penalty

We Americans pride ourselves on our uniqueness: We have yet to adopt the metric system, we use Fahrenheit and we even write our dates differently. We also lead the world as one of the only major developed nations without universal healthcare. So it should come as no surprise that we also differentiate ourselves from one […]

Guillaume Kosmala: Students should vote for propositions JJJ, HHH to end homelessness in LA

The other day I biked down to Target, hoping this time I wouldn’t see the same lady I always see laying outside. I was deeply saddened to see that for the third year running, she was still sitting at the same spot. This was a reminder that the multitude of homeless individuals I recognize because […]

Guillaume Kosmala: Professors should release exams to test bank, create level playing field

UCLA is a university where a select few are granted an academic advantage based on whether or not they have joined organizations that cost hundreds of dollars a quarter, that have a national history of flagrant racism or that require already high minimum GPAs to join. But students aren’t to blame for that – lazy […]