USAC recap: April 16

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Bruin Viewpoint Room and are open to all students. Watch a livestream of the meetings on the USAC Live! channel on YouTube.

Public Comment:

  • Several students said they think the council should be more transparent in its election process.
  • The vice chapter chair of California Public Interest Research Group asked the council to approve the resolution in support of the No Bees, No Food campaign.
  • Former USAC Election Board Chair Richard White said he thinks the council is corrupt.

Agenda:

  • The council voted to retroactively amend the election calendar to account for miscommunication about deadlines among the council, election board and students.
  • The council approved a resolution in support of the CALPIRG No Bees, No Food campaign, which aims to put pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency to declare a nationwide ban on bee-killing neonicotinoids.
  • The council approved a resolution in support of the Zero Hunger at UCLA campaign, which has the goal of getting UC campuses to commit to zero food insecurity among students by 2030.
  • The council allocated a total of $15,246 from the Contingency Programming Fund to 27 non-USAC and USAC groups.
  • The council allocated a total of $7,150 from the Supplemental Fund for Service to eight non-USAC groups.
  • The council allocated a total of $1,054.76 from the Student Wellness Commission Programming Fund to non-USAC and USAC groups.
  • The council appointed Salena Nguyen, a third-year political science student, as election board investigations director.
  • The council appointed Shant Krikor Anmahouni Eulmessekian, a third-year political science student, as election board vice chair.

Reports:

  • President Claire Fieldman said her office will meet with UC President Janet Napolitano in Oakland next week.
  • Internal Vice President Robert Blake Watson said his office held a spring Enormous Activities Fair after a two-year hiatus. He added the next IVP will be tasked with providing food trucks and study halls for spring quarter final exams.
  • External Vice President Jamie Kennerk said her office and student advocates from the UC Student Association lobbied for important issues facing students, such as higher education accessibility, immigration and basic needs, in Washington, D.C., from April 6 to April 9. She added her office submitted a petition in support of the Gender Recognition Act at a past UC Regents meeting. She added she met with Napolitano to discuss issues including gender recognition, food security based on swipes and UCPD anti-blackness after an incident at the block party.
  • General Representative 1 Ayesha Haleem said her office is partnering with UCSA to educate non-resident students about how to protest safely and legally. She added her office is working with the Dashew Center to prepare international students for a potential nonresident tuition hike.
  • Transfer Representative Jessica Kim said her office will co-host study hall events with the Transfer Student Center during finals week. She added she met with Executive Director of Student Affairs Initiatives Anne Dela Cruz to discuss restructuring transfer student orientation.
  • Campus Events Commissioner Alley Madison said her office is hosting off-campus screenings as part of MLK Remembrance Day and Fight for Education week. She added Shorttakes Film Festival submissions are due Friday. Her office will co-host a wasteland-themed arts party with the Hammer Student Association at the Hammer Museum on Friday.
  • Community Service Commissioner Bethanie Atinuke Sonola said her office held several community service trips over spring break. She added 10 students were nominated for the $10,000 scholarship, which is awarded annually to students who have exhibited excellent service.
  • Facilities Commissioner Julia Ho-Gonzalez said her office has a one-month plan to introduce green transportation methods around campus. She added the Office Space Allocation committee has opened applications for office space, lockers and mailboxes in Kerckhoff Hall.
  • Student Wellness Commissioner George Louis Faour said his office will co-sponsor the Earth Day Fair on April 26. He added almost 600 people signed up for the annual Bruin Run/Walk. He also requested that remaining SWC funds go to Campus Assault Resources and Education instead of the council surplus.

UC-AFT Local 1990 pushes for higher wages, better conditions for campus lecturers

University of California lecturers began negotiations with the UC for more favorable contracts Wednesday.

The University Council for the American Federation of Teachers Local 1990, which represents UC lecturers and librarians, initiated the negotiations by holding a kickoff event in Dickson Court at which they passed out fliers and signed up students for future meetings.

Karl Lisovsky, a continuing English lecturer and president of UC-AFT Local 1990, said UC-AFT is negotiating for improved salaries and benefits, better working conditions and stable contracts.

Lisovsky said he thinks lecturers are being treated like second-class citizens compared to tenured faculty.

Tenured faculty are paid a minimum annual salary of $91,700 while full-time nontenured faculty are paid a minimum annual salary of $54,736 and part-time faculty are paid $19,900, he said.

Lisovsky said he thinks lecturers do not receive sufficient salaries or benefits. Lecturers make 50 cents on the dollar of what professors make despite doing much of the same work, he said.

Lecturers also have limited benefits in terms of hiring practices, as they are often hired on a part-time or contingent basis, he said.

“It is very difficult to make a living as a lecturer,” Lisovsky said. “There are a few lucky ones like me who have this continuing appointment but most lecturers don’t know for how long or how much they will be working for.”

Lisovsky said lecturers do not receive much notice regarding the stability of their position, which is stressful for young professionals who are trying to put a down payment on a house, trying to pay rent or start a family.

Mia McIver, president and chief negotiator of UC-AFT and an English lecturer, said she has been a UC faculty member for 10 years and still doesn’t know if she will be able to keep her job in the fall. Her salary forces her to work a second job and doesn’t allow her to give her full attention to her students, she added.

“I’m part of this campaign for both myself and my colleagues to try to make sure that teaching in education gets the respect and dignity that it really deserves,” she said. “None of us get into this because we want to get rich, but we do it because we love our students and teaching and we want to do both of these things in a supportive environment.”

McIver said she wanted to revise the current contract so that part-time lecturers can work in better conditions and become better able to support the education of their students.

Lisovsky added he thinks students deserve to be taught by faculty who are not constantly rushing to a second job, searching for new employment or being forced out of a department after a year.

However, the negotiations may or may not end in agreement.

“We don’t expect them to give us anything and we will have to bargain (with) them and increase our numbers in terms of membership,” he said.

McIver said it has usually taken UC-AFT and the UC a long time to reach an agreement, but she hopes to have productive conversations with the University.

Sarah McBride, a UC spokesperson, said in an email statement the University will work hard to negotiate a fair agreement as quickly as possible.

“UC’s goal is a multi-year agreement that includes market-competitive pay consistent with past years and excellent benefits,” McBride said. “We recognize the significant contributions our lecturers make to UC’s education mission.”

Alison Lipman, a full-time ecology and environmental biology lecturer who sits on the Contract Campaign Committee and Table Team for UC-AFT, said the main goal of the union is increasing equity for faculty and improving student access to teachers.

She also wants to increase faculty diversity, as women and people of color are less likely to become tenured faculty, she said. She added she wants to reduce this inequity in university faculty to improve the quality of education.

Eve McNally, a fourth-year political science student, attended the event and said she was also very interested in upcoming negotiations between the UC and UC-AFT taking place May 16.

“I am attending this kickoff because I’ve seen how UC is disrespectful toward workers and want to make sure that part-time lecturers get to enjoy similar benefits as full-time professors,” she said.

Sydney Deardorff, a third-year political science student, said she first learned about UC-AFT members’ struggles at a union rally in March and wants to support their cause.

“I think UC-AFT’s cause is really important, especially for lecturers, and it’s important for them to get better wages and contracts,” she said.

Lisovsky said UC-AFT hopes to increase its membership in order to be taken seriously by the UC.

Campus Queries: What causes the different tastes in types of drinking water?

This post was updated April 19 at 12:50 p.m.

Campus Queries is a series in which Daily Bruin readers and staff present science-related questions for UCLA professors and experts to answer.

Q: What makes drinking water taste different?

A: Drinking water’s taste differs for many reasons, such as varying levels of pH, mineral content and salinity.

Yoram Cohen, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor, said water may also taste different if it has been contaminated with other substances. For example, if water has a high content of sodium chloride, also known as table salt, it would be easily detectable by taste.

Drinking water is recommended to contain about 500 milligrams of salt per liter, Cohen said. As sodium levels approach 1,000 mg/L, many people are able to taste the saltiness. Drinking water in Los Angeles has about 200 mg/L of salt.

In some cases, magnesium levels in water can affect bitterness, Cohen said.

Often times, taste is affected when water runs through various pipes and older distribution systems, Cohen said. Pipes that are many decades old may have growth of plants, such as algae, that affect the taste of water.

Drinking water also contains chlorine, a disinfectant used to kill germs, which can give off a distinct smell and taste in high concentrations.

Using a filter, such as activated carbon, can remove many elements that contribute to the unusual taste of some water supplies, Cohen said.

However, rather than drinking distilled water, people should drink water that has sufficient mineral content, Cohen said.

Though many people tend to believe bottled water is healthier than tap water, this may not always be the case because bottled water is not regulated as strictly as municipal drinking water, he said.

A few years ago, Cohen and his team conducted a study at UCLA to determine which type of drinking water had the best taste. They separated bottled water, tap water filtered with activated carbon, and desalinated seawater into three unlabeled bottles and instructed participants to order them by preference.

The participants listed desalinated seawater as their top choice, followed by tap water and then bottled water.

Several students said they preferred water from different areas of campus.

Hailey Valles, a first-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said she prefers the water fountains on the right side of the Bruin Fitness Center because she thinks the water has a distinct flavor that tastes good.

Heloise Hakimi, a third-year political science student, said she prefers the water from the water fountains on the A-Level of Ackerman.

Cohen said students should use the water bottle filling stations on campus because many of them have their own purification systems.

GSA announces four new leaders for 2019-2020 academic year

New graduate student government leaders were announced Wednesday.

Six candidates campaigned for the four executive positions in the Graduate Students Association.

Two of the new officers were independent candidates and two are from the Moving Forward slate. The slate lost in both of its contested races.

GSA president: Zak Fisher

Fisher will succeed three-time president Michael Skiles as GSA president. Fisher beat out Moving Forward candidate Ernesto Arciniega for the presidency.

Vice president of external affairs: J.P. Santos

Santos will succeed Michelle Viorato as vice president of external affairs. Santos beat out Moving Forward candidate Noreen Ahmed for the vice presidency.

Vice president of internal affairs: Paul Nesterenko

Nesterenko, a member of the Moving Forward slate, will succeed Eric Hu as vice president of internal affairs. Nesterenko ran for the seat unopposed.

Vice president of academic affairs: Shrinidhi Balasubramanian

Balasubramanian, a member of the Moving Forward slate, will succeed Ashley Wright as vice president of academic affairs. Balasubramanian ran for the seat unopposed.

New union for academic researchers receives approval from UC

The University of California approved a union for academic researchers under mounting pressure from federal and state legislators.

After the UC officially recognized the union April 1, the Public Employment Relations Board certified the union, said UC Office of the President spokesperson Sarah McBride. Academic Researchers United represents over 4,000 academic researchers at the University, including researchers who are not tenure-track faculty, postdoctoral researchers or students.

Academic researchers filed for union representation in September, but the UC filed objections to the composition of the union in December, arguing certain research positions did not belong in the union.

McBride said the UC wanted to make sure a single contract would be appropriate for all the employee positions involved.

In response to these objections, 20 members of Congress and 16 state legislators signed letters to UC President Janet Napolitano, urging the UC to recognize the union.

Congress members said in the letter the UC should recognize the democratic rights of academic researchers.

“We are concerned that the University of California may be repeating a troubling pattern: in 2010, extreme delays in the recognition of and first contract bargaining for a union of postdoctoral scholars necessitated Congressional intervention,” Congress members said in the letter.

After the UC and ARU agreed to make adjustments to the union’s composition, the UC dropped its objections on March 22, before voluntarily recognizing ARU in April.

Christina Priest, a UCLA assistant project scientist and member of the ARU bargaining team, said ARU may be the first union in the nation exclusively for academic researchers.

“The UC did the right thing in recognizing our democratically, legally elected union,” Priest said. “Everybody we wanted to be included in the unit is included in the unit.”

The next bargaining session between ARU and UCOP is scheduled for May 14 at UCLA.

Nonprofit hosts event to promote awareness of, dialogue on mental health

A humanitarian nonprofit organization held a community outreach event Tuesday to promote mental health awareness on college campuses.

Enriching Community Health Outreach, a nonprofit organization that addresses health inequities, held Mental Health Matters Awareness Night to educate students about mental health. The event featured David Choi, a Korean-American musician, and a panel of speakers from the Westside Los Angeles branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Multiple on-campus organizations set up informational booths at the event, including the Mental Health Initiative at UCLA, Liberty in North Korea and Wazo Connect.

Lanzel Patawaran, a fourth-year psychobiology student and president of ECHO, said the event aimed to spread awareness of mental health issues among UCLA students by having experts on the topic and interactive booths present at the event.

Jessica Zeng, a third-year cognitive science student and an outreach co-director of ECHO, said depression and anxiety are very prevalent among college students, and she hopes the event will draw attention to these issues that affect her peers.

She said she also hopes the event will raise awareness of other on-campus organizations that relate to mental health by letting them table at the event.

Mimi Giang, a third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student and an outreach co-director of ECHO, said she believes it is important to educate students on mental health because it can be easy for students to not acknowledge mental health issues.

“The college setting is such a unique one, it’s so easy to get trapped in this bubble,” Giang said.

Speakers on the panel talked about their personal experiences related to mental health and why they joined NAMI and gave information about programs within NAMI.

Karena Dawn, one of the speakers on the panel, said she got involved in NAMI because she experienced the difficulties and stigma of having a mother with schizophrenia.

For some, the panel was not as interesting as they had hoped it would be. Aven Pradhan, a third-year psychology student, said he thinks the information in the panel was too general and only reinforced surface-level information about mental health that he already knew.

“The specific program today was pretty decent,” Pradhan said. “The panel, I don’t want to be a jerk, was kind of dry.”

Alexia Diaz, a second-year bioengineering student, said she liked the event because she said she believes mental health awareness is a good cause to support.

Lisa Foo, a first-year undeclared student and member of Wazo Connect, said she believes the event could have been promoted better.

“Maybe they could have done a better job of promoting it. I only found out through my club,” Foo said. “If it wasn’t for my club, I wouldn’t have known it existed.”

Zeng said she hopes the event will encourage more students to engage in open discussions about mental health.

“We hope this creates more discussion among students,” Zeng said. “We wanted to engage more of the community.”

Sports bar Sepi’s to close after struggles over relocation, liquor license

Sports bar Sepi’s will close its doors at the end of the month after 50 years in Westwood Village.

Kifishia Kawachi, owner of Sepi’s, released a statement Tuesday announcing the sports bar’s closure. The statement did not specify why Sepi’s was closing, but said it has spent the last few years attempting to relocate in order to stay open. According to the statement, Sepi’s was unable to find a new location due to permitting issues and pushback from a specific community member.

The statement did not name the community member but explained that the governance structure of Westwood makes it hard for businesses to develop in the Village.

The Westwood Village Specific Plan, the master planning document that outlines zoning regulations, categorizes Sepi’s as a fast-food restaurant.

Andrew Thomas, the executive director of the Westwood Village Improvement Association, said this prevents the sports bar from being able to easily relocate to other areas in Westwood which have already reached their full capacity for fast-food restaurants. The association, which is a nonprofit organization tasked with improving the state of Westwood, is combating a 16% vacancy in the Village, Thomas said.

“If the reasons we can’t (relocate) are because of regulations that somehow value vacancy over a business that has been in our community for decades, then the regulations need to be changed immediately,” Thomas said.

The statement said a Westwood community member protested the sports bar’s alcohol license application when it was trying to relocate, contributing to making it too difficult to do so. Although Kawachi did not name the individual involved, Thomas identified the person as Steven Sann, the chair of the Westwood Community Council.

Thomas added he thinks Sann is abusing the public process for halting the approval of liquor licenses in order to hold the business hostage.

“It’s him, it’s always him,” Thomas said. “Every alcohol appeal, every fight to the area planning commission, it’s always the same person or one or two friends that also appeal everything.”

Sann said he never filed an appeal against Sepi’s. Sann said he, in fact, filed a letter of conditional support on the liquor license application filed by Sepi’s.

He did not specify what conditions he listed in the letter. However, he said one example of a recommended condition was that Sepi’s should restrict people under the age of 21 from entering the establishment during UCLA sporting events at the new location, similar to rules in place at the current location.

Zahra Hajee, a fourth-year psychobiology student and member of Westwood Forward, a coalition of students and Westwood stakeholders, started a petition demanding that Sann drop the appeal intervening in the sports bar’s alcohol license application. Nearly 2,000 people have signed the petition.

Hajee said she wanted to show support for Sepi’s and spread awareness of Sann’s appeals against the sports bar and other businesses in Westwood.

Sann said he thinks the petition was slanderous and filled with falsehoods.

Thomas said he thinks Sepi’s was an iconic part of Westwood for decades.

“I am just profoundly sad about the whole thing,” Thomas said. “It defies logic.”