Common Book Program would benefit from student involvement in selection process

The first time I heard about the Common Book, I was two midterms into week six and finishing an eight-page essay. Suffice it to say, I wanted nothing to do with a novel. Unfortunately, many students will be introduced to the Common Book this way – a process which often involves promptly forgetting about the […]

Groups for inclusion of marginalized communities instead enforce exclusivity

“It’s not my responsibility to teach you, it’s your responsibility to learn.” That’s the motto boasted by many in the LGBTQ groups on campus. The problem is: Who are students expected to learn from? This is an important question many students are asking at UCLA. The Gender, Sexuality, and Society Living Learning Community on the […]

UC creates community walls by failing to fully support transfer student inclusivity

Think back to a moment of self-doubt you’ve experienced in university. Perhaps you’re gripping your notes with sweaty palms in seminar, dreading your turn to give a presentation. Or maybe you’re nervously bouncing your leg against your desk as you raise your hand to answer the professor’s question. In that moment, you may have felt […]

Cultivating geographic diversity would help UCLA to expand students’ perspectives

To Californians, UCLA is a reputed public university with a lot of school spirit. Ask someone in the Midwest, though, and they might just think it’s a stronghold of abortion rights-, gun control-advocating college liberals. You wonder why UCLA has no enrolled students from Wyoming. UCLA talks a lot about diversity among its student body. […]

UCLA’s EDI office needs to cement long-term goals, publicize its progress

Avengers: Endgame is coming out April 26. Equity, diversity and inclusion at UCLA: Endgame is nowhere in sight. UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion was founded in 2015 to uphold its values of diversity. The office was created after the Moreno Report, a detailed document published by Carlos Moreno, a former California Supreme Court […]

Women in higher education encounter inhospitable environment

This post was updated March 5 at 3:41 p.m. A woman’s place isn’t at a university. That’s been UCLA’s message for nearly a century. And judging by current trends, it’s going to be for another. Westwood’s largest employer has a long history of alienating women. At first, nearly 76% of the university’s 1,232 faculty members […]

Admissions essays should ask for applicants’ values, not their sob stories

Milking one’s trauma isn’t the only road to university admission. And yet, it’s exactly what college applications look for. The University of California’s admission process, like that of other universities, aims to be holistic by requesting a history of applicants’ classes as well as their talents and achievements. The University’s undergraduate personal statements ask applicants […]