UCLA Spirit Squad director dismissed following Title IX investigation

This post was updated June 14 at 4:26 p.m.

The UCLA Spirit Squad director was dismissed following a Title IX investigation of her role in allowing a donor to escort UCLA dance team members to a sexually explicit Las Vegas show in November, according to the Orange County Register.

Mollie Vehling, who oversaw the UCLA Spirit Squad for nearly 20 years, was placed on leave in December and fired May 17 as a result of the investigation. She sent an email to the Spirit Squad, Junior Spirit Squad and donors, in which she denied the accusations and stated she would be appealing the decision.

“I categorically deny the allegations against me and object to the excessive penalty of termination,” Vehling wrote. “The biased investigations are outrageous and shameful and have been grossly mishandled. … I feel strongly that the University’s reaction is, in part, a reflection of the times and realities of today’s culture.”

Vehling allegedly forced six members of the spirit squad to accompany a 76-year-old former state senator Alan Robbins – a UCLA alumnus and major donor – to a show at Caesars Palace on Nov. 23 while the team was in Las Vegas for a men’s basketball tournament, a dance team member told the Orange County Register.

Robbins said the content of the show was inappropriate in an interview with the Orange County Register, and the dancer, who chose to remain anonymous, said her teammates were made uncomfortable by the racy performance and Robbins’ comments.

The former senator resigned in 1992, served five years in prison for bribery, extortion and tax evasion, and had previously been accused and aquitted of having sex with two underage girls in 1978 and 1979.

After the investigation, the longtime booster has been deprived of his UCLA athletics seats, and Spirit Squad members were asked to tell Title IX officers about their experiences with Vehling, according to the Orange County Register. Multiple female team members said they felt Vehling had coerced them into spending time with Robbins and other donors, and that the director had not stepped in after hearing about the donors’ inappropriate actions, the Orange County Register reported.

Following Vehling’s dismissal, UCLA alumnus Mathew Satuloff started a petition to reinstate the former Spirit Squad director, claiming in his statement that the UCLA Alumni Association has long been at odds with Vehling.

“(Vehling) has always wanted to entertain all of the fans. This is far different from Alumni Association’s focus on entertaining the ‘Big donors’ and always raising money,” Satuloff wrote. “(The Alumni Association) would look for any small incident where they could make Mollie ‘the fall guy’…and last year they got their wish.”

The petition has 946 signatures as of this story’s publication. The number continues to rise.

The Quad: Students share novel reflections on reading habits in college and favorite books

The summer is finally in full swing, meaning there’s also more time to engage in an activity often overlooked by busy students during the school year: picking up a good book or two.

However, in our increasingly social-media dense world, what are college students actually reading for fun besides tweets, Snapchat captions and a few Google news alerts here and there?

Student schedules are often jampacked with classes, jobs, internships, extracurriculars and social commitments during the school year. So much so, in fact, that it causes sleep deprivation at twice the rate of the general populace.

This begs the question – do increasingly busy Bruins even have time to read anything longer than an Instagram post or news article?

At first glance, the numbers don’t look great. There’s recently been a precipitous drop in library books checked out on college campuses. One might think reading has fallen by the wayside as there are so many other activities occupying a college student’s time.

As it turns out, however, fewer Americans overall are reading print books these days, which makes sense in the context of the variety of digital entertainment options available in 2019. In fact, adults aged 18-29 are still reading, on average, more than older age groups.

Somehow young adults are managing to squeeze in more time for reading than others, but we’re more interested in when and what they’re reading. We’ve talked to students about their typical reading patterns and their favorite novels to flip through both in the summer and year-round.

Rising fourth-year geophysics student Laura Iglesias said she hardly ever gets the chance to read a book during the academic year.

“The only reading I typically do during the year is assigned readings,” Iglesias said. “I can’t remember the last book I read on my own during the school year.”

Iglesias said that when she does get around to reading in the summertime, it’s for entertainment. Iglesias’ favorite book is “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

“’Good Omens’ is about the coming of Armageddon,” Iglesias said. “The Antichrist is born but an angel and a demon conspire to make the Antichrist morally neutral so that the apocalypse won’t start. It’s a really funny book.”

Some students, like rising third-year mathematics of computation student Daniel Levi-Minzi, said they try to read during the year as a means of de-stressing from the pressure of classes.

Levi-Minzi said he reads a wide range of fantasy and science fiction novels and recommends the “Dune” saga by Frank Herbert.

“It’s like ‘Game of Thrones’ but in space and actually a complete story,” Levi-Minzi said. “There is even a ‘Dune’ movie coming out next year.”

While Snapchat stories offer quick looks into other people’s seemingly exciting and spontaneous lives, fantasy and science fiction novels have long acted as an effective means of escape – with the added benefit of not having to worry about whether what you’re viewing is just a loose representation of reality.

Other students make efforts to ensure their time spent reading doesn’t dwindle during the busy school year.

Tara Ostad, a rising fourth-year physiological science student, said she tries to read at least one book a month during the school year, but ultimately ends up reading more during the summer.

Ostad’s sentiments were echoed by rising fourth-year chemistry student Stella Fors.

“I wish I could read more during the year,” Fors said. “Reading is calming for me. It is externalizing in the sense that you don’t have to worry about your life and you get absorbed into the book.”

Fors said the last book she read was “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” by David Grann.

The nonfiction book investigates a series of murders of Osage tribe members in the 1920s in Osage County, Oklahoma after large oil deposits were found in the area. Fors said she learned a lot from the book and it made her consider a topic she had known nothing about previously.

Other students admit they don’t read many books at all.

Jony Balk, a rising fourth-year aerospace engineering student, said he typically reads a lot of scientific and news articles, but doesn’t pick up too many books. However, he did recommend “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed.

The 2012 memoir details Strayed’s 1,100 mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail and was adapted into a movie in 2014.

Balk said he learned a lot from Strayed’s account and that the book inspired him to hike and enjoy the outdoors more.

Harel Amsalem, a rising third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, was similarly inspired after reading “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi.

The nonfiction autobiography is about Kalanithi’s battle with lung cancer during his last year of neurosurgical residency at Stanford University.

Amsalem said “When Breath Becomes Air” is the reason he wants to attend medical school after he graduates and eventually become a doctor.

“I like to read books that have been proven to be important to people,” Amsalem said. “This book changed my life.”

The takeaways from reading books during the summer include more than just being plunged into a fantastical world or picking up a few new vocabulary words. Ditching Facebook and picking up a book can unleash more entertainment, knowledge or inspiration than reading a simple social media post – and it may just prove more rewarding.

Drew League supports community, bringing together all-star men’s basketball players

When four UCLA Bruins stepped onto the hardwood floor at King Drew Magnet High School in the Willowbrook community of Los Angeles, they were continuing an LA basketball tradition that began in 1973.

In its 46-year history, the Drew League has aimed to bring together the best high school, college and professional players from around South Central Los Angeles every summer.

“This gym is a legendary gym,” said UCLA men’s basketball rising redshirt freshman forward Shareef O’Neal. “You have to come in here and earn your respect, and they won’t give it to you easily no matter who you are.”

Game No. 3 of Saturday’s six-game slate featured two UCLA men’s basketball players – O’Neal and rising sophomore forward Kenneth Nwuba – playing for Tuff Crowd, one of the 24 teams entered in the Drew League this season. O’Neal said Tuff Crowd is a team composed of players from the greater O’Neal family who wanted to play.

“The team came together into a family,” O’Neal said. “(Former NBA guard Brandon Jennings) is a close family friend, (Nwuba) is my teammate – for (Kenyon Martin Jr.), our dads played together. I got my cousins, my brothers – everybody on the team is family.”

Nwuba said he looked at the Drew League and Tuff Crowd as a pathway to being a leader at UCLA and beyond.

“This kind of event is why I play,” Nwuba said. “I try to be a beacon of hope for my friends and family and come out here and have fun with the opportunity I have.”

Two other Bruins who suited up Saturday played in the opening game.

Rising freshmen wings Jake Kyman and Jaime Jaquez Jr. both played for CABC So. Cal – normally a travel-Amateur Athletic Union team – with some seasoned college and professional players added to the roster for its summer Drew League run, including UC Irvine’s Collin Welp and former California and Baylor Bear Gary Franklin.

But the Drew League doesn’t just boast college athletes.

Kyman, Jaquez Jr., O’Neal and others who have yet to play NCAA basketball are forced to match up with Stephon Carter and Jennings – who graduated high school in 2009 and 2008, respectively.

Jaquez Jr. said players in his position gain valuable experience from battling against professional basketball players who can sometimes be upward of 10 years older than their competitors.

“It’s a really good experience, particularly for the incoming freshmen,” Jaquez Jr. said. “It gets us adjusted to the way that college basketball will be played because players are stronger and have played a lot longer.”

Kyman said individual areas of his game have had to grow to keep up with the level of competition present in South Central.

“A lot of it is the IQ part – these older guys have played a lot of basketball and you see a lot of different tactics and stuff from players,” Kyman said. “Also refining skills like shooting and ball control helps, as well as working to be stronger, bigger, faster.”

And while the Drew League may be built on community, superstar athletes aren’t afraid to take over the Drew gym.

Montrezl Harrell of the Los Angeles Clippers appeared Saturday to suit in a league game. Players such as the Houston Rockets’ James Harden, Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant and Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James have made appearances on the court in previous summers.

Shaquille O’Neal and Lonzo Ball have shown up to see family members Shareef and LaMelo play this season, and the man described by Jennings as “the Godfather of Los Angeles basketball” – UCLA alum Baron Davis – has played, coached and visited more than maybe any other NBA player.

Despite the superstar cameos, the Drew League is still about local athletes, either looking for a professional opportunity or tuning up in their high school or college offseason.

“It’s an awesome place because everyone can come together and play some basketball,” Kyman said. “It’s not about sizes or ‘this school, that school.’ You see tons of great players from the South Central and LA area. It’s a cool community feeling.”

Saturday’s Week 6 Games

Kyman and Jaquez Jr.’s CABC So. Cal lost to the previously winless Jaguars 85-71. USC rising sophomore guard Elijah Weaver dropped 23 points for the Jaguars, while 2013 Cal State Bakersfield graduate Carter finished with 20 points.

Welp led CABC with 19 points. Jaquez Jr. and Kyman added 11 and seven points, respectively, in the loss, dropping CABC to third place in its 12-team division with a 5-2 record.

“We’re coming off of two losses now where our shots haven’t really been falling,” Jaquez Jr. said. “We’re trying to play the same basketball that we’ve been playing – hit our shots, play defense and do the best we can to win games and ultimately the Drew League championship.”

Tuff Crowd, on the other hand, emerged victorious over BB4L 98-93.

Down 14 points after the third quarter, BB4L stormed back to take a one-point lead with just under two minutes remaining, but a subsequent 3-pointer and dunk by O’Neal and Martin Jr. sealed the victory for Tuff Crowd.

O’Neal led the way with 26 points and 10 rebounds. The Drew League is O’Neal’s first official competitive play since heart surgery forced him to redshirt his first year at UCLA.

“I would say I’m up at about 50%,” O’Neal said. “I always have the thought in the back of my head about my surgery and slowing down. It’s really a process, I don’t feel 100% yet, but it’s coming soon.”

After US wins Women’s World Cup, equal pay and sponsorship debate is reignited

Mallory Pugh posted a sponsored Instagram photo of her and the other former Bruins on the United States Soccer Women’s National Team – Sam Mewis and Abby Dahlkemper – the day before the U.S. took on Spain in the FIFA Women’s World Cup round of 16.

Ten days later, Nike reported that USWNT home jerseys became the highest selling soccer jersey, men’s or women’s, in a single year. The next week, the U.S., coached by former UCLA coach Jill Ellis, clinched the World Cup final with a 2-0 win over the Netherlands.

So people started talking.

The years old “equal pay for equal play” debate was reborn with a frenzy of new followers, trying to understand the system U.S. Soccer uses to compensate the men’s and women’s teams through both national team and club salaries. People want to know why Pugh and other members of the World Cup champion team are forced to rely so heavily on sponsorships.

UCLA School of Law professor Steven Bank – an expert on legal issues surrounding soccer – mediated debates via tweets and a series of interviews in which he explained the intricacies of the soccer system through a financial and legal standpoint.

“The FIFA corruption scandal hit and U.S. Soccer lawsuits started coming left and right – and both of those are really the result of corporate government issues,” Bank said. “But these issues are made worse by the fact that you’re dealing with nonprofit, publicly minded organizations that are really run by private businesses.”

The U.S. National Women’s Soccer League, founded in 2012, is the first women’s league to last more than four consecutive years after U.S. Soccer launched two previous leagues in 2001 and 2007, which both folded.

The current system relies on U.S. Soccer to pay the wages of certain players to subsidize the league and retain the best players.

“In a lot of ways, the market for women’s club players is artificial,” Bank said. “But as women get more opportunities to play abroad at reasonable wages … that will alleviate the need for U.S. Soccer to be paying those salaries.”

Top players in NCAA Division I women’s soccer – such as UCLA’s Jessie Fleming, who has also represented Canada internationally since 2013 – have generally chosen to complete all four years of college eligibility because earning a sustainable wage in women’s professional soccer has been difficult.

“For the average player who does not have the endorsement potential, it’s hard to make the case for leaving college based on the salaries they might be able to get,” Bank said. “The question of the salary you would get in the league is almost a rounding error compared to what you could get from endorsements.”

But as sponsorships become more common for female soccer players, there is more opportunity for athletes to forgo college.

Pugh came to UCLA and played in three spring games before opting to go pro. Bank said Pugh’s decision was not about her potential salary, but centered around brand deals.

“I had the agent for (Pugh) come speak to one of my classes at the law school, and he said the first thing he did for her … was not to try out for professional clubs and see whether they were interested,” Bank said. “It was to go to Nike, Adidas – the footwear people and apparel manufacturers – and see what (Pugh) could get from them.”

Pugh now regularly promotes Nike, Gatorade and Hulu, among other brands, via Instagram, Twitter and television ads to supplement her NWSL and USWNT salaries.

Like Pugh, U.S. midfielder Lindsey Horan turned down a full ride to North Carolina to sign with Paris Saint-Germain FC, and Tierna Davidson gave up her final year of eligibility at Stanford to declare for the 2019 NWSL draft.

If the Fair Pay to Play Act passes, giving collegiate athletes in California the right to earn money from their name, image or likeness, the NCAA will have a way to retain talented players that may go straight to the pros. If no legislation is changed with regard to sponsorships, many top players may follow Pugh, Horan and Davidson in bypassing college.

“To the extent that women can get endorsement deals, that seems like something that we shouldn’t restrict,” Bank said. “It is an issue that if the colleges don’t adapt, then players will bypass the colleges and the college game will become less important.”

While athletes in other sports still have the incentive of a six figure salary if they turn pro earlier, women’s soccer players rely heavily on sponsorships, which if possible in college, make it an easy decision to skip out on the NWSL salary in favor of endorsement money, scholarship money and an education.

In the wake of the Women’s World Cup, ESPN signed a deal to air 14 NWSL games this summer and FIFA has promised to start a Women’s Club World Cup to promote growth from the national level up to the international tournaments.

But the prospect of playing in a national league is still shaky at best.

“Recently the NWSL has improved, but to say it’s improved is to say it’s gone from being on life support to having at least a little stability,” Bank said. “They’re not truly, by any stretch, stable.”

The NCAA is safe. And in coming seasons, it may also be profitable for the best of the best female players.

Former and current UCLA softball players take home USA Softball International Cup

Three Bruins are donning red, white and blue this summer for USA Softball.

The trio of UCLA softball players traveled to Columbus, Georgia, for the USA Softball International Cup from July 1 through Sunday. The tournament is one in a series of competitions that the Bruins will participate in this summer with USA Softball.

Rising redshirt senior Rachel Garcia was selected to the USA Softball Women’s National Team roster for the second year in a row, while both rising sophomores pitcher Megan Faraimo and utility Kelli Godin were selected to play with the USA Softball U19 Women’s National Team for the first time.

The WNT went 9-1 in the International Cup, advancing to the championship game Sunday in which the USA won the gold medal 2-1 versus Japan.

Garcia played in seven games for the WNT, recording 6 2/3 innings pitched over four appearances. Her record includes a four inning start versus Mexico, in which she gave up just one hit and struck out eight batters.

Garcia finished the tournament without allowing an earned run. Over the duration of the Cup, she allowed just one hit while tallying 11 strikeouts, and at the plate, Garcia finished with a .353 batting average in 17 at-bats.

The U19 WNT finished the International Cup with a 7-3 record, after winning the bronze medal game versus Scrap Yard Fast Pitch, an independent women’s professional team, on Sunday by a score of 8-0 in five innings. Faraimo started the game for the U.S. and picked up the win, pitching three innings and giving up just two hits.

Faraimo pitched in a total of four games for the U19 WNT, including a start versus the Philippines, in which she gave up zero runs and struck out nine in five innings to take the win. The only runs Faraimo allowed all tournament were in a 10-inning game versus Garcia and the USA WNT, in which Faraimo pitched 9 1/3 innings and gave up two earned runs to take the loss.

Godin played in all 10 of the U19 WNT’s games, often batting in the ninth spot as she did during the season with UCLA. She finished the tournament with a .474 batting average in 19 at-bats, scoring nine runs total.

In addition to the three current UCLA players competing with Team USA, there are two former Bruins who are competing with the Women’s National Team this summer. Ally Carda and Delaney Spaulding – who graduated in 2015 and 2017, respectively – both saw action in the Cup. Carda pitched in five games, including three scoreless innings during the championship game, while Spaulding hit .308 in the tournament, including a three-hit game against Japan on Sunday.

The WNT and U19 WNT will continue play in exhibition games over the coming weeks before the Pan American Games kick off in Peru starting in August.

Former Bruins face top competitors, fall short at beach volleyball world championship

Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes trailed the No. 1-seeded German pair of Chantal Laboureur and Sandra Ittlinger – which had the home-court advantage – 18-14 in the second set. If they had dropped three more points, they would have been eliminated.

The former Bruin and former Trojan, respectively, won seven of the next eight points in the set to force a third, and eventually took down the top seed 19-21, 21-19, 15-10 in the round of 32 of the Hamburg FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.

Claes led the comeback for the No. 14-seeded United States duo, notching 32 points in the match.

But the run didn’t last, and Sponcil and Claes were eliminated in the next round with a 2-0 loss to Italians Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth. Sponcil and Claes – 22 and 23 years old, respectively – placed ninth overall in the world championships.

Prior to the elimination stages of the tournament, Sponcil and Claes went 2-1 in Pool I, notching 2-0 wins over Russia’s Ekaterina Birlova and Evgenia Ukolova and as well as Colombia’s Yuli Ayala and Diana Rios – both teams seeded below the U.S. duo.

Sponcil and Claes fell 2-1 to the No. 9 seed pair of Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada, but still advanced past pool play into the round of 32.

Other former Bruins Nicole and Megan McNamara entered the world championships as the No. 34 seed and went 1-2 in Pool A, including a 2-0 loss to Laboureur and Ittlinger – the same pair Sponcil and Claes defeated in the round of 32.

The McNamaras were sent to the Lucky Losers draw with a chance to extend their tournament run, but fell 2-0 to Germany’s Leonie Körtzinger and Sarah Schneider.

Pavan and Humana-Paredes earned first place and an automatic Olympic berth for Tokyo 2020 with a 2-0 win over the U.S. duo of April Ross and Alexandra Klineman in the final. While the McNamaras and Sponcil were unable to bring home the title for Canada or the U.S., respectively, their nations were still represented in the championship.

Sponcil, Nicole McNamara and Megan McNamara will continue to compete in the FIVB international circuit with hopes of qualifying for the Olympics, with the next tournament taking place Monday through Sunday in Gstaad, Switzerland.