The tenure of the 2013-2014 Undergraduate Students Association Council was a boom-and-bust cycle, marked by the highs of successful inter-office projects and the lows of persistent missteps in transparency and procedure. More often than not, it was the failures in decision-making and collaboration that set the tone at the council table. Controversies such as the […]
Category Archives: Opinion
Submission: Race-blind admissions single out important criterion for exclusion
BY JANET NAPOLITANO What if the Supreme Court had ruled this past week that states have the constitutional right to require that their public universities consider only SAT scores when making admissions decisions? Never would happen, you might say. Because it’s absurd. Common sense dictates that universities should consider many factors about a student when […]
Letter to the Editor: Student leaders’ trips to Israel a matter of being informed
In response to “Aram Ghoogasian: USAC members should not participate in external lobbying groups” in Opinion on April 9. It’s hard to defend ignorance, but Aram Ghoogasian has done a great job by suggesting that student leaders who travel to Israel are unduly influenced to the detriment of UCLA affairs. These students are very fortunate […]
Submission: USAC must make effort to avoid perceived conflicts of interest
Last year, lobbying organizations spent a total of $3.2 billion to influence the U.S. Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The effects of this lobbying are widely understood: Both Democrats and Republicans concur that these interest groups exercise too much power over our nation’s government, and many believe that their influence has corrupted our nation’s institutions. Unfortunately, […]
Editorial: ASUCLA student reps’ rhetoric is counterproductive
What student officials say matters. When they are charged with representing the interests of thousands of students to a vital campus body, their words matter that much more.
Editorial: UC’s court settlements fail to address root grievances
As the University of California Board of Regents well knows, court settlements can be useful in dodging unfavorable legal outcomes and the bad press that accompanies them. But a recent $10 million settlement in a whistleblower-retaliation case involving UCLA doctors illustrates why settlements pose a challenge for a public university. Namely, they bury information and […]
Eitan Arom: UCLA relations with POM Wonderful, donors overstep bounds
This is a tale of two empires. One is the UCLA Health System, a sprawling fiefdom of medical services flying the UCLA standard at locations from Malibu to Torrance. It’s headed by President David Feinberg, deemed by LA Weekly as “UCLA’s millionaire doctor.” The second is the food-and-drink enterprise owned by Stewart and Lynda Resnick, […]