Daily Bruin – Page 117

Baseball continues strong start with win over Cal State Fullerton

The Bruins are off to their best start in the John Savage era.

No. 1 UCLA baseball (31-7, 11-4 Pac-12) defeated Cal State Fullerton (16-20, 4-5 Big West) 8-3 on Tuesday night to remain perfect in midweek games. The victory marks the best 38-game start in coach John Savage’s tenure, surpassing the 2010 team that finished as the runner-up in the College World Series.

The Bruins’ offense put up at least one run in every inning after the third, starting with a two-run home run in the fourth by senior designated hitter Jake Pries. He followed that up with a bases-loaded walk in the next frame to plate junior second baseman Chase Strumpf and increased the UCLA lead to 3-0.

Pries said the team’s continuous offensive production is reflective of the lineup’s depth.

“It shows that we got some depth,” Pries said. “Our depth has made everyone better, so that is definitely an aspect of our team that is a positive.”

Sophomore right fielder Garrett Mitchell hit a two-run home run of his own in the sixth to give the Bruins a 5-0 advantage. After the Titans scored twice in the bottom of the sixth, sophomore shortstop Kevin Kendall grounded into a double-play that was still able to bring in UCLA’s sixth run of the night.

Strumpf singled through the left side to bring home Mitchell in the eighth and sophomore third baseman Jake Hirabayashi smacked an RBI double to left center in the ninth for the Bruins’ seventh and eighth runs, respectively.

Freshman right-hander Jesse Bergin made his fifth consecutive midweek start and limited the Titans to three hits and no runs through five innings of work. Bergin was pulled, however, after walking the first batter he faced in the sixth.

Bergin’s fellow freshman right-hander Jack Filby entered the game and let up an RBI double to put the Titans on the board. Bergin was held responsible for the run, ending his night with one earned run, three hits, three walks and three strikeouts.

Bergin said every part of the team helped him pick up his fifth win of the year.

“Coach Savage does a great job of scouting teams ahead of time, which allows the entire pitching staff to trust him,” Bergin said. “Our offense was doing their thing. … (The) defense made some big plays. It was a solid team effort all around today.”

The Bruins put in sophomore right-hander Michael Townsend for their third pitcher of the sixth after Filby allowed a walk and single to load the bases with one out. The Titans scored their second run off a sac fly, but Townsend escaped the jam with an infield pop-up.

Redshirt senior right-hander Nate Hadley sat down the Titans in order in the seventh, and junior right-hander Kyle Mora allowed one hit and recorded three strikeouts in the eighth.

Sophomore right-hander Holden Powell struck out designated hitter Sahid Valenzuela for the final out of the game, but the ball got past freshman catcher Noah Cardenas, allowing Valenzuela to reach first and the runner on third to score. Powell retired the next batter to secure the win.

The Bruins will return to Jackie Robinson Stadium for a weekend series against the Utah Utes starting Friday at 6 p.m.

Men’s tennis hopes to continue Pac-12 tournament dominance

The Bruins have a chance to win the Pac-12 championship for the second consecutive season.

No. 13 UCLA men’s tennis (16-4, 8-0 Pac-12) will compete at the Pac-12 championship in Ojai, California, starting Wednesday. The Bruins boasted an undefeated conference record for the fourth straight year and claimed the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

UCLA will begin match play Thursday, where it will face the winner of No. 8 seed Utah and No. 9 seed Oregon. The Bruins bested the Utes 4-2 in their conference opener March 8 and overcame the Ducks 4-1 at home April 12.

Coach Billy Martin said it is difficult to say how his team will respond to the high-pressure environment of the tournament. The Bruins’ roster contains only one senior and half of the singles lineup this year was filled by freshmen.

“I didn’t have very high expectations for this season,” Martin said. “It’s been an unbelievable group of kids who have been determined to succeed and shock the coach.”

The Bruins claimed the No. 1 seed for the second year in a row. Last year, UCLA posted 4-0 wins over both Arizona and Oregon to reach the finals where they faced crosstown rival USC. The Bruins emerged victorious over the Trojans 4-1. Then-freshman Connor Hance clinched the win for the Bruins with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the Trojans’ Jake DeVine.

Senior Maxime Cressy said he is pushing the team to strive for a similar position this year.

“I aspire to be a role model. It’s not easy, but you have to show leadership on and off the court,” Cressy said. “(I have to) make sure that everyone is dedicated and focused. I make sure the team is always disciplined in everything we do.”

The Bruins have won the Pac-12 tournament four times in the tournament’s eight-year history and have claimed the No. 1 seed in six of the eight years. The Trojans will fill the No. 2 seed for the second year in a row and have reached the finals of the competition in every year except in 2016.

Freshman Patrick Zahraj will play in the tournament for the first time and said that he doesn’t feel that the Bruins have pressure to win, despite being the No. 1 seed.

“Going into the regular season, we didn’t get any attention,” Zahraj said. “There were other teams that were more favored – USC and Stanford – and all those teams looked better than us. We know how hard we worked to get into our position and that gives us confidence to do well.”

Also in the Bruins’ half of the bracket are the No. 4 seed California Golden Bears and the No. 5 seed Arizona State Sun Devils. The Bruins claimed 4-2 victories over both schools March 30 and April 19, respectively. No. 3 seed Stanford sits in USC’s half of the bracket. They will face each other in the semifinals, should both teams advance to that stage.

“We have a vision of what we want to accomplish,” Cressy said. “We’re not here for the experience, we’re here to win. I’m very proud of this team for their fighting spirit, and that’s what we’re going to need in Ojai to win.”

Rested and ready, women’s tennis set for Pac-12 tournament expected to be intense

It’s win or go home for the Bruins from here on out in Ojai, California.

For the second consecutive year, No. 10 UCLA women’s tennis (16-6, 8-2 Pac-12) will enter the Pac-12 championship as the No. 2 seed coming off a win against No. 15 USC (17-6, 7-3). The Bruins received a bye and will face the winner of the Utah (13-10, 3-7) and Arizona (11-11, 2-8) match in the quarterfinals in Ojai on Thursday.

“Every match we play is going to be just like (the match against USC),” said coach Stella Sampras Webster. “It is going to be very intense and it is single elimination, so we have got to be ready.”

UCLA suffered a 4-2 loss in the Pac-12 tournament finals last year at the hands of Stanford, which went on to win the NCAA championship a month later. The Cardinal are riding a 14-game winning streak, having only tasted defeat against the then-No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs.

The Bruins have lost their last five clashes against the Cardinal stemming from March 2016, but three of the five matches were 4-3 losses. For three straight seasons, Stanford has finished the regular season undefeated during conference play.

UCLA managed to land on the opposite side of Stanford’s bracket with a 4-2 win over USC on Saturday at Marks Stadium, ensuring a matchup against the Cardinal would only come in the championship round.

The victory gave the Bruins an 8-2 conference record, identical to that of No. 13 Washington. But the Bruins were awarded the No. 2 seed due to their head-to-head 4-1 victory against the Huskies.

“It is a pretty quick turnaround,” said sophomore Abi Altick after she clinched the win against USC. “We will enjoy this victory for a little bit and then get back to work. If we keep this momentum, I think we can do well at Ojai.”

Sampras Webster’s squad has played 10 matches in the past month. Despite the intense workload, Sampras Webster said everyone is feeling good and ready to go.

“Everyone is recovering well,” said redshirt junior Jada Hart, “We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing to give ourselves the best chance to compete at our best physically.”

The No. 39 Colton, California, native is 12-7 on the season and holds a 9-3 record on court one singles. She has won her last 10 matches in doubles, nine of which came alongside freshman Elysia Bolton. The duo is No. 12 in the country, 25-7 overall and 14-4 in dual matches.

If UCLA wins its quarterfinal matchup, they will face one of No. 3-seeded Washington, No. 6-seeded Arizona State or No. 11-seeded Oregon.

Interfaith event aims to build community among students of different religions

An interfaith committee featured students from different religions Tuesday to promote understanding across faiths.

Panelists from various religions – including Catholicism, Judaism and Islam – spoke about their experiences with their religion in life and in college, how they have developed their faith and how their beliefs have helped them to find a community on campus. The Undergraduate Students Association Council president’s office hosted the event.

A moderator from the interfaith committee asked the three student panelists about different aspects of their faiths to spur an open discussion about religion and to address common misconceptions about their faiths.

Lior Behdadnia, a fourth-year political science student, said his Jewish faith has encouraged him to make moral decisions throughout college.

“Obviously we have all had those opportunities to cheat our way through the system or finesse our classes or take the easy way out but for me, being Jewish and believing in Judaism gives me a sense of morality hanging over my head that pushes me to do the right things,” Behdadnia said.

Perry Tran, a second-year biochemistry student, said his faith helps keep him accountable in all facets of his life.

“I like to think of God as sort of a moral gym buddy. He’s there to hold you accountable,” Tran said. “Even when he’s not listening, you will still feel remorse thinking about doing something just because you can get away with it.”

Shahamah Tariq, a second-year engineering student, said she did not have to try as hard to develop her Islamic faith while growing up in Dubai since the religion was so ingrained in the culture. However, she had to put more effort into actively professing her faith once she came to college in the United States.

“It felt more rewarding because I chose to do it. I choose to do it because I find peace in doing it and I find comfort in doing it,” Tariq said. “It might be a minority religion, but the fact that I actually choose to take the time for my religion is a huge deal for me and is what keeps me grounded as a college student.”

Maggie Pickford, an executive co-director of the interfaith committee and a second-year psychology student, said she hopes faith-based events will help students form a community across different religions and find comfort in expressing their beliefs on campus.

“Our goal is to show people that there (are) a lot of similarities across faiths and there doesn’t need to be such a large divide as many people make it out to be,” Pickford said. “So we want to show people that there is a sense of community even across faiths, between faiths.”

Joshua Varela, a third-year political science student and co-chief of staff from the USAC president’s office, said on a large and diverse campus, it is especially important to have dialogues about faith that increase people’s understanding of one another.

“I’m not a particularly religious person, but I think that it plays an important role in a lot of people’s lives,” Varela said. “I think the key to making UCLA more tolerant is to have an exposure to those of other faiths and ideas.”

UCLA community questions fairness of naming buildings after donors

This post was updated April 29 at 5:43 p.m.

Students and professors said naming facilities after large donors gives an unfair advantage to donors’ families while administrators said donations do not influence admission.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a national media tour that the practice of granting university facility naming rights to large donors is a form of legal bribery and reflects the corruption of the college admissions process. UCLA has multiple buildings named after large donors including the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.

Katherine Alvarado, a UCLA spokesperson, said UCLA admits students solely based on the merits of their achievements, and not based on relatives’ history of donations to the university.

Students and professors said they agree with Newsom that naming buildings after donors is an unfair practice.

Mariana Jimenez, a fourth-year communication student, said she thinks UCLA should not name buildings after or grant favors to large donors who may not represent the values of the university.

“Thanks for the donation, but why do we have to name a huge building after you?” Jimenez said. “Do you stand for our values?”

Tyrone Howard, a professor of education, said while he does not think the practice of naming buildings after large donors is necessarily unethical, it may give an unfair advantage to family members of donors in the admissions process.

Howard said the university needs to consider whether it is able to forgo the substantial financial support it receives from donors if it wants to fix the perception that it is being unfair.

UCLA was recently involved in a college admissions scandal that involved parents using bribery and fraud to help their children obtain admission to universities nationwide. Soccer coach Jorge Salcedo was placed on leave, and later resigned, for allegedly helping to falsely admit students as student-athletes.

Howard added he thinks UCLA should explicitly tell family members of large donors that their applications may receive closer scrutiny to ensure they are not receiving any unfair advantages.

UCLA may name facilities after donors if the donation is large enough to fund the total cost of the facility or provide a portion of funding that UCLA may not have gotten otherwise, according to UCLA Policy 112.

When deciding whether to name a building after a donor, the university considers the eminence of the individual, their relationship to the university and the urgency of the project being funded, according to UCLA Policy 112.

Amora Haynes, a third-year political science and communication student, said she thinks university buildings should be named after people who have positively impacted the community, not just those who have the money to donate.

“They are recognizing people for what they have, not what they do,” Haynes said.

Op-ed: STEM students are subject to arbitrarily harsh, mentally taxing grading schemes

As soon as a grueling STEM test ends, I always think to myself how everyone did on the exam. Did everyone score high or did everyone score low? Most importantly, will I beat the curve?

Compare that to how I thought about my communication class: My A-quality speech is an A-quality speech. On the other hand, as a STEM major, an A on an exam does not always equal an A because of the class curve.

This curving system creates a concerning atmosphere in which STEM students want to beat each other rather than work collaboratively. On top of this hostile environment, the curving system creates an academic-success gap between North and South Campus students. No wonder in the 2001-2002 school year, UCLA students from the materials science and engineering department averaged a 2.70 GPA compared to a 3.80 average from Slavic, East European and Eurasian languages and cultures department.

But the curving system is only part of UCLA’s grading problems. On top of professors presetting the percentages of As, Bs, Cs, Ds and Fs in a class, the university’s plus-and-minus system deducts points from students’ letter grades. A 2012 study showed a student perception that the plus-minus system would lead to a lower GPA. And although these are just perceptions, these negative thoughts can ultimately be long-term stressors.

UCLA desperately needs to close the grading-system gap in each department and modify the plus-minus system to alleviate student stress while facilitating a much more positive learning atmosphere.

Although there is limited data highlighting departmental differences in grading, student narratives indicate the gap is extensive.

“There is definitely a difference between each department,” said Priya Kohli, a human biology and society student. “It may be due to the nature of courses, but still, I encountered having many science classes with a preset curve compared to my humanities courses.”

Her experiences ring a bell with many other students on South Campus, including myself.

North Campus students seem to have it different, though.

“I rarely encountered a class with a curve from my department,” said Kendra Djokovich, a communication student.

Djokovich said there is definitely a difference between South and North Campus departments with regard to grading.

It is unfortunate students do not know whether this departmental difference officially exists, and can continue to perceive their rumored hard majors in a negative light. The UCLA 2018-2019 General Catalog grading policies confirm that final grades are based on the “instructor’s evaluation of the student’s achievement,” which may include curves. Although it remains unclear which departmental courses rely on these curves, this difference may further perpetuate STEM students’ thinking that they will have worse GPAs based on their “hard” major – something that only deters students from thinking positively about their academic outcomes.

Instead, UCLA should officially make GPA averages public for each major and adjust for severe discrepancies across departments. The university should also modify its grading policies to better promote an inclusive and less anxiety-heavy learning atmosphere. A recent Mayo Clinic study showed that students graded on the pass-fail system had less perceived stress compared to students on a five-interval grading system, similar to what we have.

Additionally, the pass-fail group had greater cohesion in groups and a better mood compared to the interval graded group. This study took place at a medical school, and is one UCLA should consider taking. After all, we consistently boast our True Bruin Values, including “respect” and “service” for a Bruin’s surrounding community. We shouldn’t compromise on these values by perpetuating a grading system that causes students to value some majors over others.

Of course, one might argue, though, that the pass-fail system does not differentiate students for scholarships or graduate schools and can promote laziness. But there are still plenty of ways to differentiate students through less cut-throat systems. The 2012 study showed that students perceived the plus-minus system to lower their grades and more than 90% agreed it did not increase their motivation to learn. On the other hand, students are more than open to having a plus-only system to help with grades rather than bringing down an A- student to a 3.70 GPA.

Furthermore, the pass-fail system can differentiate students through written evaluations. In fact, successful schools like Yale, Stanford and Harvard Universities allow students to take some pass-fail classes toward their majors with distinctions like honors.

It is time UCLA shifted its grading system from being GPA-focused to being team-oriented and intellectually-driven. The stigma associated with grades can deter students from having a positive outlook about their education – something crucial to being a successful and open-minded student. And that, which can last years and affect students’ health during and after college – even increasing the risk of contracting diseases – is something the university needs to consider when critically examining its grading schemes.

If UCLA wishes to prioritize student health and wellbeing, the grading policies it employs should encourage collaborative practices to truly have students focus on learning and sharing knowledge rather than what side of campus they’re on.

Saini is a fourth-year human biology and society student.

Planting green study spaces around campus could improve students’ mental health

Hold off on the hacksaws and gravel trucks – because grass is here to stay.

In the wake of a “megadrought” and drying water reserves, California has taken a liking to ripping out the green and planting succulents in its stead. Angelenos were famously upset when Beverly Hills residents insisted on maintaining lavish green lawns in the peak of the recent drought.

There are unintended effects of this environmentalism, though. UCLA researchers found in a study published in March that green areas in urban environments can improve people’s mental well-being. The study found a correlation between increased greenery and increased mental stability among teens.

In other words, UCLA loses more than just grass when it goes green.

Some in UCLA seem cognizant of this. Nurit Katz, the university’s chief sustainability officer, said the UCLA Sustainability Committee has devoted manpower and money to identify underused areas on campus and transform them into study spaces furnished with greenery and drought-tolerant plants. Katz and her team have identified multiple locations, but landscaping hasn’t started at all spaces, and these projects have gone largely under the radar.

This comes at a time when UCLA has proven woefully incapable of fixing its Counseling and Psychological Services center and administrators are unable to provide high-quality mental health support for students. Mental health problems have reached new levels of crisis at UCLA and these green spaces represent an indirect effort aimed at alleviating some of the factors that contribute to student-life pressures.

The university needs to embrace, prioritize and expedite these kinds of secondary efforts to improve mental health on campus. The UCLA Sustainability Committee has initiatives to infuse the campus with greenery and biodiversity, ultimately benefiting mental health – it’s about time we took note of them.

UCLA students want spaces like these because of how helpful they are, practically and aesthetically. These study spaces feature much more greenery, along with places to sit and relax. They’ll help transform UCLA’s reputation as a concrete jungle gym into one of a more environmentally conscious university.

Shawn Foroushani, a first-year biochemistry student, said South Campus could use more projects like these in particular.

“South Campus is a bit lackluster compared to other parts of UCLA, and it’s no secret that (its) students can struggle with mental health problems,” Foroushani said. “These study spaces should be a priority.”

Hard sciences and engineering departments have been criticized for their underwhelming and unaccommodating support of students in terms of mental health. In fact, CAPS, which is incredibly understaffed, agreed to provide specialized counseling to South Campus engineering students because of rampant mental health concerns.

Small, aesthetically and environmentally pleasing spaces go a long way in improving people’s mental well-being. In fact, a 2014 study found increased foliage is positively correlated with improved stress recovery. The sustainability committee’s study spaces clearly shouldn’t go ignored at a university that traditionally devalues mental health.

“These study spaces sound like they’d be tremendous help to students,” said Zachary Menz, a first-year psychobiology student. “I’m sure most people appreciate the extra space.”

Moreover, UCLA is a campus of more than 45,000 students and having more study spaces matters, given Powell Library and other common study spots on campus are often filled to the brim.

Raqeeb Chang, a first-year business economics student, said UCLA has a responsibility to its students, first and foremost.

“Students should be the focus of UCLA, and mental health is a big problem for a lot of students,” Chang said. “UCLA’s responsibility should be to prioritize projects like these because they’re for the whole community.”

And that’s essentially what these projects are: a love letter from the university to its students and the LA community. These spaces benefit the local ecosystem by replacing some plants and planting more. And expediting these initiatives shows that UCLA is actively looking to improve the campus’ mental health at a time when mental health treatment on campus is discouraging, to say the least.

Of course, a key inhibitor to planting more greenery and being more environmentally conscious is the limited water supply, especially given the recent drought. Projects like these can seem to suck water away and further desertify California. However, the sustainability committee has transformed these landscapes primarily using drought resistant plants that naturally require less water to thrive while employing sustainable techniques for maintaining grass on campus.

So let’s pause for a second with the concrete and cement. Greenery just might be able to make a comeback.