Daily Bruin – Page 137

UCLA program offers seminars developed, facilitated by undergraduate students

Alejandra Cervantes is teaching fellow undergraduate students how to improve STEM teaching in higher education through her own credit-bearing class.

Cervantes, a fourth-year mathematics and computer science student, created a seminar called “Lifelong Kindergarten: Reimagining STEM Higher Education Pedagogy” through the Undergraduate Student Initiated Education program.

Under the USIE program, third- and fourth-year students can develop and teach a one-unit seminar with the help of faculty supervisors and a chosen advisor over the course of the year. Second- and third-year students can submit an application for selection during their spring quarter.

The USIE program was created in 2006, when several undergraduate students came to Judith L. Smith, the then-dean and vice provost for undergraduate education, with the idea for undergraduate-student-led courses at UCLA, according to USIE’s webpage.

More than 2,600 undergraduate students have taken USIE seminars as of spring 2018.

Cervantes created her seminar to address what she said she believes are failures of STEM teaching in higher education. The course is designed to make students consider the ways that STEM pedagogy can be improved at the university level.

“As a mathematics student, I had started seeing a lot of inefficiencies in how STEM classes are taught at UCLA and at the higher education level. I saw that there’s been a lot of progress at other levels, say K-12,” Cervantes said. “We’re still teaching things like science and technology and engineering and mathematics in a way that we did hundreds of years ago.”

Cervantes’ course addresses specific problems in STEM education and provides potential solutions to those problems.

“We’ve been discussing things like the amount of time it takes students to complete their degree. … We’ve been discussing fail rates, we’ve been discussing grading patterns, which tend to pit STEM students against each other,” Cervantes said. “Moving forward, we’re going to start looking for solutions to these problems, and how we can improve the outcomes of UCLA STEM.”

Cervantes is one of over 100 undergraduate students who have taught their own courses at UCLA through USIE.

Jacob Zazzeron, a fourth-year economics student and the USIE Faculty-Student Advisory Committee’s undergraduate co-chair, said he has seen firsthand the advantages of students taking on a more hands-on role in their education.

“I’ve seen (USIE) grow from something not really anybody knows about to a more known program,” Zazzeron said. “It’s been interesting to see how the faculty respond to my comments, as well as my co-chair’s comments, because we do offer different perspectives about what students actually need to learn in school, and some things that they don’t consider.”

The fall and winter quarter of the program are dedicated to honing teaching skills, such as methods of evaluation and ways of engaging students. In spring quarter, students teach their own classes.

Jennifer Cho, a fourth-year musicology and political science student, has taught the course “Music in Life of You: Listening Approaches” through USIE.

The USIE program allowed Cho to combine parts of her academic and personal interests to teach students to look at art through both a technical and emotional perspective, she said.

“Performance really wasn’t something that I felt encompassed what I felt toward music,” Cho said. “It was more than just playing, it was more than just interpreting the composer or the score; it was about what it really meant to me and what it meant for people, and how communities are shaped around it, and how music is used in various situations, what that really means.”

Cho said her course is designed to give her students a view of the many disparate branches of musicology, rather than an in-depth look at just one. Each week is dedicated to a topic of musicology, including “musicking,” the temporality of music and identity in music, she said.

“My original thought (was) that many people experience music, or have experiences in music, in a very unidirectional sense,” Cho said. “If you’re listening to music or you’re expressing yourself with music, you’re tending to look at the sounds … but you can also kind of create depths within music if you look at its social contexts, or its cultural contexts or its historical or … teleological (contexts).”

Cho said her experience with USIE led her to change her career goals. Despite having played piano and violin from an early age, Cho initially planned to pursue business and economics in college.

“I got to UCLA under business economics. … Honestly, it made me very nervous during that time, as a 17- or 18-year-old trying to choose a decision that almost feels like the rest of your life,” Cho said. “I would go to concerts and actually have to walk out in the middle, because I … knew I wasn’t doing what I needed to do.”

After teaching the subject through USIE, Cho eventually switched her major to musicology and is now considering pursuing a doctorate in musicology.

College admissions scandal elicits proposal of new bills by California lawmakers

Experts said state bills proposed in response to the college admissions cheating scandal may not have immediate effects on the role wealth plays in the college admissions process.

California lawmakers proposed a package of bills on March 28 in response to the recent college admissions scandal uncovered March 12. These bills were aimed at addressing the illegal measures taken by wealthy parents to grant their children admissions into elite universities, including UCLA.

In the recent scandal, parents gave $25 million to third-party college preparation businesses that helped their children cheat on standardized tests. The scheme also helped students gain admission to prestigious colleges as student-athletes despite never having played their respective sports competitively.

The package of bills consisted of six measures, including barring special admissions made without the approval of three campus administrators, regulating private admission consultants and investigating the admissions process within the University of California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

LaToya Baldwin Clark, an assistant law professor at UCLA, said she questions whether or not passing the bills will substantially lessen the role of wealth in college admissions.

“While this case was extreme in many ways, there are lots of ways that people or parents will still be able to use their wealth in order to influence their child’s chance of getting into an elite college or university,” Clark said.

She said there are numerous legal methods of using wealth to increase a student’s prospect of admission, including paying for SAT tutoring or taking the SAT more than once. She added that college consultants can legally help students write their college essays or guide parents in applying for financial aid.

Sophia Kwong Kim, chief of staff of California assembly member Patrick O’Donnell, said she thinks Assembly Bill 751 will function as an equalizer for low-income students who do not have access to resources or students who are not motivated to go to college.

Kim said the bill allows the school district to administer the ACT or the SAT to 11th grade students in place of required standardized state testing. She added in special cases in which a student has a disability, a coordinator would be required to provide the necessary accommodations at the school site.

Kim said she believes the bill will benefit students whose financial or personal backgrounds discourage them from applying to colleges.

“(The bill) exposes those students who didn’t think that college was for them. … It opens the door to that opportunity if we remove that barrier to be taking the ACT or the SAT,” Kim said.

She said while AB 751 was not directly proposed in response to the college admissions scandal, it does have the potential to address future cases of cheating.

Kim said the bill would ensure the same assessment is administered to 11th graders at the same school site. She added these conditions would prevent illegal activities, such as exams being taken by hired test-takers or scores being changed.

“When you’re doing it at the school site, your teachers know who their students are,” she said. “There will be no cheating in that regard.”

Kim said she thinks Gov. Gavin Newsom and Tony Thurmond, the new state superintendent of public instruction, will push for the bill to be passed.

“This is a reintroduction of a bill from last year,” she added. “We had it passed last year in the legislature with no no-votes, so we are hoping that we are going to have the same outcome this year.”

Clark said a more thorough examination is required to understand how individual wealth distorts the allocation of public goods.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg of the ways in which wealth is used in order to get students into college,” she said. “These bills are not going to do anything about that.”

Clark said the cheating scandal sheds light on the failure of college admissions to measure merit in its applicants.

“The legislatures who are putting these proposals forward have this idea that when this cheating happens, it takes away a spot from a more deserving student,” Clark said. “But, I think the question also has to be … what does it mean to be deserving of a spot in an elite college or university?”

Robert May, University of California Academic Senate chair, said special admissions are important for admitting many students with special needs and skills.

“I think we have to examine whether there actually is a (special admissions) problem,” May said. “If there is a problem then of course we should correct it, but at this point, we really don’t know whether (special admissions have) been abused or not.”

May said the UC Academic Senate’s Standardized Testing Task Force is looking into the role of the SAT and ACT in student admissions in order to make data-driven recommendations about the effectiveness of standardized tests in measuring student success. He added aside from issues having to do with standardized testing, he does not believe the bills will have a considerable effect on how students will be admitted into the UC.

Clark said the scandal has brought a lingering uneasiness regarding the future of the applications process.

“These are just the people who actually got caught in the cheating,” Clark said. “There’s probably a lot more people out there who are doing similar things – they just haven’t been caught.”

USAC Election Board found to have violated constitution, election code

Student government election coordinators were found Friday to have violated their constitution and election code.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council Judicial Board found at a hearing Thursday the USAC Election Board failed to treat all candidates equally and to enforce campaign deadlines, in line with election guidelines.

Brandon Broukhim, the vice chair of the Associated Students UCLA Communications Board and a second-year public affairs and history student, filed the case petition after he was told he could not run for a general representative position after missing an unofficial April 1 deadline to submit campaign packets.

Election board chair Kyana Shajari pushed the deadline for campaign packets from March 18 to April 1 because she could not access the official election board email at the time of the deadline. However, the change was never officially approved by USAC and was only announced on Facebook.

Shajari was appointed as investigations director on Jan. 22. She replaced Richard White, who she said did not cooperate with her as she transitioned into the role.

The judicial board ruled any candidate who submitted their campaign packet after March 18 may not run in the 2019 election. Following the ruling, Shajari said she had to follow up with four candidates who may potentially be disqualified and will present her findings about their eligibility at Tuesday’s USAC hearing.

Broukhim said he thought the election board’s failure to provide all potential candidates with the same information meant the election process was not fair and equal for all students.

Aaron Boudaie, a fourth-year political science student and former USAC member, served as a representative for Broukhim at the hearing. He said because not all students had access to the new deadline Shajari had posted on Facebook, potential candidates like Broukhim were not given a fair chance at running for council.

Broukhim said after the hearing he thought the case was meant to show the shortcomings of the election board as a whole. He added he thought the hearing was about whether or not the campaign process was fair for all students.

Broukhim said after the ruling he thought the judicial ruling did not reflect the findings of the hearing. He also said he thought the election board had not been held accountable at the expense of the candidates who could potentially be disqualified.

Shajari said she thinks the ruling will only affect Broukhim. She added she does not think the election board will face any penalties for its code violations.

Abigail Chapman, chief justice of the judicial board, said in an email statement the board will release a post on Facebook on how it came to its decision within the next two weeks, as per judicial board rules.

Boudaie said he thinks the election board had not conducted equal outreach to all students and ultimately affected the quality of the election as whole.

“At the end of the day, candidates, potential candidates, the student body, they should not be penalized for the election board’s shortcomings,” Boudaie said.

Due to a shortage of candidates, a special election will be held for two general representative positions and for Financial Supports commissioner in fall quarter, said USAC President Claire Fieldman.

Bruin Tea: Who chooses the dining hall music?

Quarter system got you down? Have you fallen and can’t get up? Bruin Tea is a series investigating student questions and petty concerns about UCLA.

Question: Who chooses the dining hall music?

UCLA Dining Services said in a statement music is coordinated by a third-party contractor to fit the halls’ brand identities.

Musical genre, tempo and artists are chosen based on several factors, like restaurant space and time of day.

Selections are meant to complement lighting, temperature and food, according to the statement.

“Music is the easiest one, of all the design elements, to actually change and it’s the one that’s most alive in the restaurants,” UCLA Dining said. “The music really sets the tone.”

Students can make requests by speaking to a restaurant manager. The manager can then take the requests to the third-party contractor.

TL;DR: An outside group chooses. Tell a restaurant manager if you have a request.

Underrepresented Spanish-speaking women share perspectives in film festival

Immigration, sexuality and maternity will be explored from a woman’s point of view in this year’s annual Latin American, Latinx and Iberian Film Festival.

Founded in 2012 by assistant adjunct professor Adrián Collado and hosted by UCLA’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, this year’s iteration of the annual festival will run from Monday through Thursday featuring films directed by women from Spain, Latin America and Mexico. Some screenings will be accompanied by live Q&As with cast and crew. One of the festival’s goals is to provide a platform for underrepresented women in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries to share their perspectives on social issues, said Spanish and Portuguese professor Elizabeth Warren.

“We are hoping that since we are having Q&As with a lot of the directors, we’ll have conversations about the visibility of women in the industry and their experiences as a woman filmmaker in different countries,” Warren said.

Graduate student Esther Claudio, who helped find funding for the festival, said the festival committee aims to highlight intersectional social justice films. For example, Thursday’s screening of “Carmen y Lola” follows a romance between two young girls and their lives in the traditional Roma community. Roma people are a marginalized group in Spain, and Claudio said it was interesting to see how Roma and LGBTQ identities intersect. The festival is a way to foster discussion about these experiences and view Latin-American and Spanish countries in a nonstereotypical way, Claudio said.

“It’s not the stereotypical dressy Brazil Carnival with sexualized women, … or with Spain, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s all flamenco and bullfighting,'” Claudio said. “It’s talking about the topics that we are all interested in – like sexuality, gender, immigration – and seeing how we are all dealing with these topics.”

In previous years, only Latin-American, Portuguese and Spanish films were showcased. For the first time in the festival’s history, however, Collado said they are including a film created in the United States in order to be more inclusive. Since there are so many Latin-American countries represented in the United States, Warren said the film can be considered part of the Spanish-speaking world. The festival will kick off with a screening of “Real Women Have Curves” along with a Q&A with director Patricia Cardoso. This is one of the first films directed by a Latina that received commercial success, setting a precedent for other Latina directors, Warren said.

“We share tradition, history and language with the Chicano and the Latino community here in the United States. We felt that it would be a good idea to bring in or to add that element to the festival. (It is) not only the Latin-American, Spanish and Portuguese festival, but also Latinx,” Collado said.

By showing films from the Latin-American, Spanish and Chicano communities, Collado said the festival shows they share similar difficulties. The films open up discussions about social justice issues and intersectionality and how each culture deals with them, Claudio said. In previous years, graduate students were the main audiences present but Collado wants to make these films appeal to a larger audience. In the future, Collado hopes more people, especially undergraduate students, will be involved in deciding what films to select and in organizing the festival.

“We want to show them that there are films in Spanish that are interesting … it’s trying to expand the canon of cinema as well,” Collado said. “Here in the States, there are not so many Chicano stories in Hollywood in general or in mainstream cinema, so in a way it’s also giving the opportunity and space to remind everyone there are these stories.”

Men’s golf concludes regular season with third straight top-3 tournament finish

The Bruins ended their regular season on a high note.

UCLA men’s golf finished third at the ASU Thunderbird Collegiate in Phoenix, Arizona, shooting a 7-under 845 in its final tournament of the regular season.

The Bruins played two full rounds Friday, scoring 1-under and even par, respectively. Senior Cole Madey paced the team at 4-under on Friday.

In the final round, UCLA shot 6-under, the second-best round of the day, moving up two spots to third place out of 14 teams.

“We knew it would be difficult coming to Arizona State’s golf course, where they play every day, and try to outcompete them,” said coach Derek Freeman. “But our guys did a great job. They fought hard and played very well, so I was super excited about how they performed this week.”

Senior Patrick Murphy tied for third at 6-under, earning his best individual placement of the season. Murphy shot 4-under in the final round Saturday, tying for the best round of the day.

“I played really solid, and honestly, it couldn’t have come at a better time,” Murphy said. “We’ve got a lot of momentum as a team, and to get a top-three (finish) was awesome.”

Madey finished tied for eighth at 3-under after shooting 1-over in the final round.

“I didn’t chip too well this week, and I didn’t make as many putts as I would’ve liked,” Madey said. “(But) I started to hit my irons better than I did in the previous weeks.”

Junior Hidetoshi Yoshihar shot 2-over to finish tied for 28th. Sophomore Eddy Lai finished one stroke behind Yoshihara to tie for 34th. Lai finished tied for second among the field in par-three scoring.

Senior Jack Ireland and freshman Sean Maruyama tied for 41st and 72nd, respectively. Maruyama competed as an individual.

After middling team placements throughout much of the regular season, UCLA has placed in the top three in all three of their April tournaments, including back-to-back victories at the SeattleU Redhawk Invitational and the Wyoming Cowboy Classic.

“I think early in the season, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to win, and we were looking at positions on the leaderboards a lot,” Murphy said. “Now, we are just focused on golf and just trying to play as well as we can without worrying about the outcome.”

The Bruins will next compete in the Pac-12 championships in Eugene, Oregon, from April 22-24.

Men’s tennis extends winning streak with weekend wipeouts of Washington, Oregon

The Bruins’ winning streak has been extended to 10 matches.

No. 13 UCLA men’s tennis (14-4, 6-0 Pac-12) claimed victories over both No. 48 Oregon (13-7, 1-5) and Washington (6-15, 1-5) on Friday and Saturday afternoon, respectively. The Bruins posted a 4-1 victory over the Ducks before their shutout performance against the Huskies. Saturday’s win marks UCLA’s first shutout win against a Pac-12 competitor this season.

Doubles play against Oregon on Friday began with sophomore Keegan Smith serving-out a 40-0 game to give him and his partner, senior Maxime Cressy, a 1-0 lead in their set before winning their match 6-2. Smith and Cressy are ranked No. 4 in doubles and have yet to be beaten this season in all competitions.

The court three doubles team of sophomore Bryce Pereira and freshman Patrick Zahraj gave the Bruins the doubles point after their 6-3 win over Oregon’s Emmanuel Coste and Armando Soemarno.

Smith at No. 2 singles claimed a first set victory over Oregon’s Ty Gentry 6-1. In that set, Smith faced five deuce deciding points and won four of them. Smith would go on to claim his match, 6-1, 6-3.

Freshman Eric Hahn on court six stuck close to his opponent, Ethan Young-Smith, throughout the first set – eventually forcing a tiebreaker at 6-6. Hahn came away with a 7-6 (6) win and would provide the clinching point for the Bruins with a 7-6 (6), 6-1 final score.

“It feels great that I was there for the team,” Hahn said. “With the few nagging injuries, I was there. It felt amazing out there playing an actual match. Winning like that couldn’t feel any better.”

Coach Billy Martin said he has known Hahn would be successful on the team, despite not regularly starting in the lineup.

“With some nagging injuries, (Hahn’s) stepped in and had a chance, and he’s done a fantastic job for us,” Martin said. “A coach couldn’t ask for any more from him.”

Hahn’s win came just after junior Ben Goldberg lost his match to Joshua Charlton 6-2, 7-6 (5), giving the Ducks one point on the board before the match was called.

The Bruins continued their winning ways Saturday against the Huskies with their lineup identical to the one that faced the Ducks.

Wins at No. 2 and 3 doubles gave the Bruins the doubles point. Redshirt sophomore Connor Rapp and freshman Govind Nanda won their match 6-1 at No. 2 doubles while Pereira and Zahraj at No. 3 doubles defeated their opponents by the same score.

All singles courts for the Bruins took their first set and Smith gave the Bruins another point toward the match score with his 6-3, 6-0 defeat of the Huskies’ Jack Davis at No. 2 singles.

Smith said, despite the win, he needed to stay focused throughout the duration of the match – referencing a shot he attempted to hit between his legs when he was ahead 4-0 in the final set.

“Sometimes I lose focus a little bit,” Smith said. “That was one of those moments. I did come back to win that game on deuce point, but I need to work on my focus and take care of business.”

Smith leads the team in dual match wins, with his latest victory taking him to 18 singles wins.

Hahn on court No. 6 continued his winning ways of the past week, besting Washington’s Sebastian Hawken 6-3, 6-1.

“My groundstrokes were feeling good (this weekend),” said Hahn. I was starting to hit balls on both wings very well, and I’m feeling very confident. I think I’ve adapted really well (since my dual match debut) and right now I’m playing loose.”

The win against the Huskies was secured by Nanda at No. 3 singles, who claimed a straight set victory against Piers Foley, 7-5, 6-1.

UCLA will take the court again Friday, hosting both Arizona State and Arizona this weekend to continue conference play.