“La educación no se vende, se defiende.” Education isn’t sold, it’s defended. That was just one of the many signs teachers carried at Friday’s United Teachers Los Angeles rally in front of City Hall. UTLA has been negotiating with the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education for the past 20 months about how […]
Category Archives: Opinion Columns
Federal financial aid policy hinders off-campus students from paying rent on time
Jan. 1. New year, new you, right? All that’s on your mind is that it’s time to start eating at Bruin Plate and hitting up the Bruin Fitness Center regularly. Unless you live off campus, in which case rent is the only thing on your mind. In order to pay for UCLA, some students have […]
UC chancellors’ decision to thwart academic boycotts protects free speech
In December, the University of California’s 10 chancellors all made a decision to promote and preserve intellectual pursuit over a political agenda. It was the right one. Numerous institutions launched an academic boycott of Israel in April 2004 following rising tensions in the Israel-Palestine border conflict. The demonstration was part of the larger Boycott, Divestment, […]
Required diversity, inclusion statements unfairly bias UCLA hiring process
In an effort to promote diversity, UCLA might just be doing the opposite. The university enacted a policy in May that requires all faculty candidates to submit an equity, diversity and inclusion statement as part of their application. An EDI statement is a short essay that lays out a candidate’s past contributions and future plans […]
Establishing a creative writing minor will expand possibilities for UCLA students
Imagination is a hard thing to come by in one’s undergraduate studies. Putting pen to paper to write something imaginative can be even harder. Right from the start, incoming students are made to fulfill general education requirements, including science and English literature courses, as well as a bevy of other courses, to complete their major. […]
California lawyer hopefuls disadvantaged by unnecessarily high cut score
The bar is set too high for law students trying to pass the California bar exam. And the reasons are bafflingly pointless. In order to be a practicing lawyer in California, one must pass the bar exam, a multiday test consisting of multiple choice and essay questions, to be licensed by the state. Students typically […]
Public transportation in for a bumpy ride, needs to adapt to modern needs
Public transportation’s days are numbered. The Los Angeles International Airport announced last week it would reduce hours for its FlyAway bus services in Westwood due to low ridership numbers. But all signs of blame point to the service itself. The FlyAway service has hourly rides from Westwood to LAX with set locations for riders to […]