Men’s volleyball knocked out of MPSF tournament after ceding semifinal win to USC

The Bruins were two wins away from a conference title.

No. 2 seed UCLA men’s volleyball (19-9, 8-4 MPSF) lost to No. 3 seed USC (18-9, 7-5 MPSF) 3-1 in the semifinal round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament Thursday at Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse. The Bruins would have automatically qualified for the NCAA tournament had they won the MPSF tournament championship.

“It’s no secret that we haven’t had great luck this year,” said senior outside/setter Micah Ma’a. “We didn’t complain about it. We just went and played as hard as we could. It was a good run.”

The Bruins advanced to 0-9 on the season in matches that they have posted a lower hitting percentage than opponents, as UCLA committed 22 attacking errors and were outhit by USC by .350 to .241.

Despite leading the Bruins in team kills this season, junior middle blocker Daenan Gyimah and redshirt junior opposite Brandon Rattray combined for 0 kills and a -.714 hitting percentage in the first set. The Bruins as a team also had a negative hitting percentage in the first set, posting a mark of -.083 versus the Trojans’ .130 en route to a 25-21 first-set victory for the Trojans.

The Bruins improved upon their first-set hitting percentage and hit for .200 in the second set, but the Trojans hit for .522 in the set and posted a 94% side-out percentage to take the set 25-18.

The Bruins opted for a lineup change in the third set, shifting Ma’a from outside to setter and replacing redshirt freshman setter Adam Parks with redshirt sophomore outside hitter Sam Kobrine.

The Bruins recorded a game-high side-out percentage of 76% in the third set and outhit the Trojans .382 to .355 to force a fourth set. But UCLA was unable to string together consecutive set wins and lost the fourth set 25-23.

“We tried to go back to a little bit more of the lineup that we had earlier in the year,” said coach John Speraw. “But (when) you start flipping around setters and all those types of things this late, it doesn’t bode well for your success.”

The Bruins will need to be awarded one of two at-large bids by the NCAA tournament selection committee to advance to the NCAA tournament in May. However, Speraw said that the Bruins are not expecting the season to continue.

“It was a disappointing season,” Speraw said. “I feel bad for the seniors. They had an opportunity talent-wise to make another run at a Final Four, and it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Senior outside hitter Dylan Missry led the Bruins with 14 kills and Ma’a led the team with seven kills through the first two sets before being moved to setter. The duo have played together for the past four years and may have played their final collegiate match together.

Across their careers at UCLA, Missry recorded 585 kills and Ma’a posted 572 kills and 196 service aces.

“It’s been a blast to play with (Ma’a),” Missry said. “We’ve won a lot of games together, and we’ve lost a lot – we’ve been through it all.”

The Bruins will await the NCAA men’s volleyball selection show Sunday to see if their season will continue.

Westwood Village Improvement Association applies for city grant to improve roads

A Westwood organization may help improve the infrastructure and appearance of Westwood Boulevard if a grant from the city of Los Angeles is approved.

The Westwood Village Improvement Association, a nonprofit organization tasked with improving the state of Westwood Village, submitted an application to the 2019 Great Streets Challenge on April 1. The Great Streets Challenge is a grant program that offers groups such as nonprofit organizations and business improvement districts the opportunity to potentially receive consultation and financial support to improve a corridor in the city of Los Angeles.

The program was made by Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Great Streets Initiative in collaboration with the departments of City Planning and Transportation and allows eligible organizations to identify a street, network or geographic area within the boundaries of Los Angeles as a project area that they would like to improve.

With the exception of specific stretches of Pico Boulevard, S. Robertson Boulevard, Van Nuys Boulevard, Crenshaw Boulevard, Cesar Chavez Boulevard and Central Avenue, any street in Los Angeles can be identified as a project area, according to the Great Streets Challenge application guide.

Organizations that apply have the chance to be selected as one of 10 community partners by the Great Streets Challenge. These applicants will work with the city and a consultant to develop a vision for the project area they have identified and receive up to $15,000 for outreach to gather community support and input.

Megan Furey, WVIA marketing and communications manager, said in an email statement that the association’s application identified the stretch of Westwood Boulevard running from Le Conte Avenue to Wilshire Boulevard as its project area because of its importance to Westwood Village.

“Westwood (Boulevard) … serves as the main artery from Wilshire (Boulevard) through Westwood Village to the main entrance of the UCLA campus,” Furey said. “It is a critical corridor for transit users, pedestrians and shoppers.”

If the WVIA is named a community partner, it has the potential to be selected as one of four finalists that will move onto a “Build” phase, during which it will finalize its project designs and start building components of the project. These finalists will also receive up to $13,000 for additional outreach and approximately $500,000 to fund their proposed improvements.

Furey said the WVIA’s application identified four main challenges on Westwood Boulevard they would like to address with the grant. She said they will focus on addressing overcrowding at bus stops on narrow sidewalks and a lack of on-site information regarding bus routes and schedules. It will also aim to resolve a lack of bicycle and scooter parking, faded and poorly marked pedestrian crossings and the numerous vacant storefronts along the corridor.

“Our goals and focus on this grant application align with the mayor’s Great Street priority projects: mobility, health and safety, accessibility and sustainability,” Furey said. “If we can address these issues, Westwood (Boulevard) would be a better place for pedestrians and should make for a better place to open a business in currently vacant storefronts.”

Andrew Thomas, executive director of the WVIA, added that ongoing and upcoming projects, such as the Metro Purple Line Extension and the 2028 Summer Olympics, will further motivate the association to focus on their proposed project area, as they are expected to bring a significant amount of people to Westwood.

“We see those as catalysts in our district that are going to have a significant impact,” Thomas said. “We want to make sure that things like pedestrian infrastructure, alternative transportation and traffic in our village are at their best when we reach these milestones.”

Thomas said he thinks mobility and traffic are significant issues affecting Westwood Village, and that the Westwood community could make the area more inviting if it improves infrastructure and pedestrian access. He said this would serve to benefit businesses operating in the Village.

“We could make our district a much more desirable place to visit and just experience,” Thomas said. “If we can get people into our district, there’s a much greater chance for them to walk into our stores, spend money and have a great time here.”

Thomas said the Great Street Challenge encourages a holistic and communal approach to addressing these project areas’ challenges.

“Of course, we all have ideas on what solutions could be, but the grant is different than others in that they want the community to come together and discuss solutions,” Thomas said. “There’s a number of solutions to the challenges that we have outlined, but we don’t want to assume the answers without bringing the community together to talk about them.”

Ryan Snyder, a lecturer of urban planning and member of the North Westwood Neighborhood Council, said if the WVIA is selected as one of the Great Streets Challenge’s 10 community partners, the next step would be to reach out to three major stakeholder groups the association has identified: UCLA students and staff, those who live in the Westwood district and Westwood residents and workers.

Snyder said the proposed strategy to reach these groups involves contact through social media, email, physical flyers and mailing campaigns.

“The goal is to give everyone in the community the opportunity to participate and lend their voice to the conversation,” Snyder said.

Thomas said the WVIA expects to hear from the Great Streets Challenge regarding its selections for community partners by the end of April. He said the association has applied for the grant twice in the past but had not been selected.

However, Thomas said the WVIA will pursue making positive changes to the Westwood area regardless of whether it is chosen by the Great Streets Challenge.

“LA’s a big place, and we understand that competition is pretty fierce, but if we are not in the grant’s top 10, we’ll continue to push for these improvements in other ways,” Thomas said.

New UCLA esophageal diseases center to be named after Robert Kardashian

The David Geffen School of Medicine announced Tuesday its new esophageal disorders center will be named after Robert Kardashian, a Los Angeles attorney famous for representing O.J. Simpson.

The Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health will conduct research, provide patient care and run educational programs and community outreach for esophageal disorders ranging from gastroesophageal reflux disease to cancer, according to a UCLA press release.

Kardashian died of esophageal cancer in 2003. His family announced Tuesday they will launch fundraising efforts to support the new center, according to the press release. The Kardashian family is famous for starring in the reality TV show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

The center is based in the UCLA Vatche & Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases. It will work with the UCLA Melvin and Bren Simon Digestive Diseases Center and the Integrative Digestive Health and Wellness Program to provide patients interdisciplinary care, according to its website.

The center will also work with UCLA’s Institute of Precision Health to integrate UCLA medical research with patient care, and it will promote clinical outreach to underserved communities and public education about esophageal disorders, according to its website.

Study finds 1 in 5 MS patients referred to UCLA, Cedars-Sinai were misdiagnosed

This post was updated April 21 at 5:00 p.m.

UCLA researchers found almost one in five multiple sclerosis patients referred to UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center or Cedars-Sinai Medical Center were misdiagnosed with the disease.

Marwa Kaisey and Nancy Sicotte, lead investigators of the study, studied a sample of 241 patients to find how many patients within that pool were misdiagnosed and to determine the root of the misdiagnoses. The study will be published in an academic journal, Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, in May.

Among those misdiagnosed, 72% had been prescribed MS treatments, according to the study. Forty-eight percent of these patients received therapies that increase the risk of developing progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a serious disease in the white matter of the brain.

Multiple sclerosis, a disease in which the immune system attacks one’s nerve cells, is notoriously difficult to diagnose. Kaisey, a Cedars-Sinai physician who specializes in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology, said there is no definitive test to confirm multiple sclerosis.

“In multiple sclerosis, there is no single test that says ‘Yes, you have it,’ or ‘No, you don’t,’” Kaisey said. “We use diagnostic criteria that include a clinical symptom like loss of vision or weakness in arm and leg. The second step is to do a brain MRI.”

Despite the existence of formal diagnostic criteria, not all physicians employ these in the same way, Kaisey said.

“There are strict criteria but not everyone adheres to (them),” Kaisey said. “I strongly believe we need better tools that take some of the subjectivity out of it and make it less time-consuming.”

Sicotte, who is also interim chair of the Cedars-Sinai department of neurology, said changing diagnostic criteria could have contributed to the increased misdiagnosis rate.

“It used to be you had to have two clinical events in order to have a diagnosis, but now we use MRIs to help us make the diagnosis early,” Sicotte said. “A lot of the cases that we saw that were misdiagnosed were because people were sort of taking shortcuts.”

Kaisey said migraines were the most common condition misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis.

“Migraines can cause neurological symptoms and white spots on brain MRIs,” Kaisey said. “The most common diagnosis to get confused with multiple sclerosis is migraines.”

Barbara Giesser, a co-author of the study and clinical director for UCLA’s multiple sclerosis program, said their study builds on previous research on multiple sclerosis misdiagnoses by also calculating the costs and risks associated with the issue.

“Seventy-two percent of people … had been misdiagnosed for a disease-modifying therapy, and we calculated the cost of their therapy,” Giesser said. “These agents are expensive, and they have potential side effects.”

Sicotte said the cost of treating a misdiagnosed case can range from $50,000 to $80,000 per year for a patient. Even though insurance may alleviate some financial burden for patients, this cost still affects the healthcare system.

“Not just one individual will have to pay, but somebody’s got to pay,” Sicotte said.

Kaisey said she thinks patients may feel most upset about losing a part of their identity in the case of a misdiagnosis.

“(Multiple sclerosis) has become a small part of (the patient’s) identity, like joining multiple sclerosis support groups. People make plans around multiple sclerosis,” Kaisey said. “To reverse that is very, very difficult.”

Patients may also be frustrated by their exposure to potential negative side effects of unnecessary treatment, Sicotte said. Some treatment methods, such as injections, can be painful and possibly result in infection.

“The biggest thing we worry about with multiple sclerosis treatment, given that they all affect the immune system, is infection,” Kaisey said. “They are generally safe, but they all have their pros and cons.”

Kaisey said it is important to develop easy-to-use, accurate diagnostic tools for the future. Sicotte said Cedars-Sinai physicians are developing a new imaging technique called central vein sign that will allow them to distinguish multiple sclerosis from other conditions, such as migraines.

Kaisey also recommended patients visit a multiple sclerosis specialist to get a more detailed diagnosis and ask questions about treatment options.

“Multiple sclerosis specialists are few and far between, so patients are dealing with general neurologists,” Kaisey said. “It would be worthwhile to see (a multiple sclerosis) specialist.”

University of California officials discuss effects of proposed Title IX changes

University of California Title IX officials assessed proposed federal changes to Title IX policy and the future of Title IX at the UC as part of Sexual Assault Awareness month Thursday.

The United States Department of Education proposed changes to current Title IX rules in November that would guide how schools handle reports of sexual harassment.

Under the proposed changes, the UC would have to comply with new federal regulations such as switching from a single investigative model to a live hearing model in investigations and allowing for the advisor of the accused to cross-examine the accuser.

Suzanne Taylor, UC systemwide Title IX coordinator, and Mohammed Cato, UCLA Title IX director, said at a Campus Assault Resources and Education event their highest priority is ensuring that their policies are fair for everyone involved.

Cases in non-UC affiliated activities and programs, and cases outside of the U.S., would also no longer be under the jurisdiction of UCLA’s Title IX office, Cato said.

Cato also addressed the proposal to change the definition of sexual harassment to “unwanted conduct that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a recipient’s education program or activity.”

This is a stricter definition that excludes many incidents of sexual harassment that would be included under the old definition, he said.

Amy Weitz, a UC Office of the President spokesperson, said the UC is troubled by the proposed Title IX rules and is aware that proposed changes would reverse critical protections for individuals who have experienced sexual violence.

“We will not adopt any feature of the Title IX rules that we believe would be harmful to our students or the broader UC community unless and until that is absolutely legally required,” Weitz said. “Our highest priority is ensuring that our policies are fair and just, so that individuals who have experienced sexual misconduct will not fear coming forward, and so that all parties know that their rights are protected.”

Weitz added there is currently no new federal Title IX ruling in place, as the changes have only been proposed thus far. However, when new policies are issued, the UC Title IX office will have to critically assess the best way to comply.

“The (UC) has agreed to comply with Title IX as a condition to receiving federal funds,” Weitz said. “Therefore, when the proposed rules are eventually issued, we must thoughtfully assess the best way to respond, keeping the well-being of our university community paramount.”

Atreyi Mitra, a marketing coordinator for the Bruin Consent Coalition and a second-year human biology and society student, said she believes the recent proposed changes by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will harm students who have experienced sexual violence and will serve to protect the accused more than the survivor.

“I know about the trauma, self-blame and invalidation survivors experience, reasons why so many never end up going to CARE or Title IX,” Mitra said. “These proposed Title IX policy changes do absolutely nothing to mitigate the sexual violence epidemic on college campuses and will only increase underreporting.”

Mitra added she approves of the UC’s condemnation of the proposed policy changes but worries about forced compliance. She said she hopes students will continue to seek out support despite the controversy surrounding possible changes.

“There continues to be a lot of ambiguity surrounding how these policies will manifest in the UC,” Mitra said. “But just remember that the UC and the Title IX offices are trying their absolute best to reject as much of the proposed policies they legally can as well as performing everything in the most trauma-informed and survivor-centered manner.”

College admissions scandal unlikely to affect UCLA’s federal student financial aid

UCLA professors said a recent federal investigation into UCLA may not impact the university’s access to financial aid, but it may bring attention to the legal methods of exploiting the college admissions process.

The Department of Education launched an investigation into UCLA and seven other universities in March following the recent college admissions scandal.

Department of Justice prosecutors charged at least 50 people across eight United States universities involved in a scheme to bribe college officials and coaches in exchange for admission of their children.

Jorge Salcedo, former UCLA men’s soccer coach, was indicted on charges of accepting $200,000 in bribe money in exchange for facilitating the admission of two high school students as student-athletes, despite having limited soccer experience. He was put on leave and has since resigned.

If federal investigators decide to assess penalties, the Department of Education could revoke UCLA’s access to Pell grants and other federal financial aid programs, according to a report received by Politico.

UCLA is accredited by Title IV, the federal program that allocates financial aid. The Department of Education would have to repeal UCLA’s Title IV authorization to cancel federal aid.

Ozan Jaquette, an assistant professor of higher education, said he believes such a possibility remains slim. Some for-profit schools have retained access to financial aid through Title IV despite also participating in administrative scandals, Jaquette said.

“For-profits were doing terrible, terrible things flat-out in the open for years with very little repercussions,” Jaquette said.

UCLA is in compliance with all financial aid regulations and will fully cooperate with the federal government, UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez said in an email statement.

Jaquette said he thinks canceling aid would be an unprecedented misstep in holding the right people accountable.

“The penalty for helping rich kids get in (would be to stop) … allowing poor students to enroll,” Jaquette said. “The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”

Jaquette added while the illegal bribery in college admissions is a high-profile issue, it is not as prevalent or problematic as the legal methods wealthy applicants use to get a leg up in the admissions process.

Mitchell Chang, an education professor, said he believes the scandal draws attention away from the legal backdoors privileged applicants have always had access to, like using large donations and networks to improve their chances of admission.

“The wealthy donors and their children have always had an advantage,” Chang said. “How are these means that much different from the legal ones?”

In addition, Jaquette said he thinks many private high schools hire college counselors who worked in admissions offices at elite colleges, privileging wealthy students who can afford their guidance.

“(They say,) ‘This is what you should play up in your essay; take these courses; do these things,’” Jaquette said. “They have connections in universities and they understand the cracks in the system.”

Chang added he believes the scandal is also symptomatic of a growing divide between UCLA Athletics and UCLA.

“As athletics becomes a bigger financial enterprise, it’s kind of operating on its own instead of operating as a very close branch within the university,” Chang said.

He said he thinks a way to reconnect the two is to give the university more oversight of athletics.

“In the end, the university is governed by faculty, whereas athletics is not,” Chang said. “There has to be greater faculty oversight.”

The only group at UCLA currently tasked with such oversight is the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, a committee made up of six voting members who meet once per quarter.

Muriel McClendon, a UCLA history associate professor who chairs the committee, said in an email statement that the IAC still hasn’t met to discuss the admissions scandal.

Jaquette added he believes the ability for coaches to award leftover scholarships to anyone provides an opening for corrupt coaches to try to personally benefit from the leftovers.

“They (looked for) cracks in the system and they found athletics,” Jaquette said.

Quarter system’s flexibility exceeds benefits of its semester counterpart

I transferred to UCLA from a small, New England liberal arts school in 2018. The quarter system, with its fast-paced, high-stress reputation, was one of my greatest fears.

It’s now one of the things I love most about UCLA.

Last month, Chancellor Gene Block told the Daily Bruin Editorial Board he favors a move to the semester system. The board subsequently published an editorial advocating for the switch and argued that an in-depth educational experience offered by 15-week semesters would be superior to that of 10-week quarters.

And in recent decades a number of universities, including UC Berkeley, have switched over to semesters.

Others haven’t. The University of Chicago’s student body voted overwhelmingly against such a move in the 1990s, according to Rene Ong, an astronomy and physics professor. The issue was settled by UCLA faculty in 2003 when the Academic Senate voted to retain the quarter system.

That’s because the quarter system has enormous strengths.

It allows for greater flexibility for faculty doing research. Professors can teach for two quarters and devote one to research in their respective fields, a dynamic that’s unique to the quarter system.

Students also have an advantage, as they are able to take more classes, including courses outside their comfort zones. The quarter system also gives students more opportunities to boost their GPAs with more classes.

Completely overhauling UCLA’s academic calendar by switching to semesters is not only unnecessary but also disadvantageous. Regardless of Block’s statement, students should rest assured the quarter system is in many ways superior to semesters.

Quarter system aficionados frequently point to how the structure keeps students interested in their classes with a fresh start every 10 weeks and allows them to explore other subject areas.

“If you have a bad experience with a particular course or professor, it’s less disruptive to your academic experience because it’s only 10 weeks with that course or person,” Ong said.

Ong is right. With semesters, the cost of taking an unpleasant course is higher. This discourages students from taking classes outside of their majors, meaning they miss out on opportunities to gain a more holistic education. Moreover, it can be difficult and frustrating for students to retain information they learned three months prior for their final exams.

The quarter system also allows for an in-depth understanding of class material in its own way. If a subject isn’t adequately explored within 10 weeks, it can be broken up into multiple courses, which allows the topic to be further explored.

“In some subjects, you actually learn more in-depth on quarters than semesters,” Ong said. “If you can’t cover a topic properly in 10 weeks, you can spend another quarter on it, which gives you more time than with a semester.”

The shorter classes in the quarter system also better help students unsure of what field of study to pursue, said Vanessa Renteria, a third-year international development studies student.

 

“If you’re searching for a subject you enjoy, it can be really helpful to be able to swap classes three times over the course of the year, as opposed to just twice,” said Derrick Thai, a first-year biology student.

Faculty can also devote one full quarter to research in their fields, an opening that doesn’t exist in the semester system.

Willeke Wendrich, a professor in the Near Eastern languages and cultures department, said the research freed up by UCLA’s schedule is invaluable to both professors and students.

“On the whole, I think the quarter system works better,” Wendrich said. “If students want to do a research project, it’s much easier to organize in the quarter system than semesters.”

Wendrich said quarters are crucial to her work as an archaeologist, as being able to take off the winter quarter is necessary for her to do her field work.

The quarter system’s benefits to both faculty and students should give pause to those pushing for change. UCLA has developed into the No. 1 university in the nation via the quarter system. Completely switching the university’s academic calendar to the semester system would be both unnecessary and unwise.

It could be said that such a system unfairly prioritizes research at the expense of students. Some departments’ courses can seem truncated in the 10-week format because of how rushed and lacking in thorough instruction they might be. Semester advocates would point to this an example of how quarters might benefit faculty research, but not students.

Yet in the vast majority of cases, professors can adapt subjects to quarters without hurting the educational experience, Wendrich said. Additionally, graduate and undergraduate students can more easily participate in research for a quarter, as opposed to a semester.

The grass always seems greener when it comes to the opposite side of the academic calendar. But the truth is, semesters have their own flaws – UC Berkeley is still only the No. 2 school, after all.