Since 1919
Tula B. Strong, a second-year MFA and Dance Candidate at the World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department, tells us about her work in progress, “There is a River,” and explores what dance means to her.
Tula’s piece was featured at the MFA 2 Concert this Friday, March 8th, at 8 pm in the Glorya Kaufman Hall Dance Theater Room 200 for free. The concert was presented by the UCLA Department of World & Arts Cultures/Dance.
The Bruins completed their third tournament sweep of the season – this time beating four top-20 teams.
No. 1 UCLA beach volleyball (14-0, 1-0 Pac-12) hosted the East Meets West Invitational at the Manhattan Beach Pier, where it defeated No. 6 LSU (8-4, 4-2 CCSA) 4-1, No. 9 FIU (5-4, 1-0 Conference USA) 4-1, No. 4 Florida State (11-4, 5-1 CCSA) 4-1 and No. 19 TCU (5-7, 2-1 CCSA) 5-0.
“Often times when you win, you don’t take a deep look into where we can get better and what we can improve on – that’s our challenge right now,” said coach Stein Metzger. “We finally have a week to get back to basics and take a look at what kind of adjustments we want to make.”
Seniors Nicole and Megan McNamara were the first to finish their straight-set wins in every match. The duo is off to an 11-1 record on court one, with its only loss coming against No. 2 USC’s Abril Bustamante and Tina Graudina on Feb. 27.
Nicole McNamara said the pair – which is the shortest on court one in the nation – has been working on ways to beat taller opponents. No other Bruin pair went 4-0 over the weekend.
“We’ve been focusing a lot on passing closer to the net and speeding up our offense just to throw off some of the bigger blockers that we face,” Nicole McNamara said.
The reigning AVCA/CollegeBeachVB.com National Pair of the Week – senior Sarah Sponcil and junior Lily Justine – suffered its first loss of the season to FIU’s Federica Frasca and Margherita Bianchin 21-8, 21-17. The latter pair has consistently played on court one but was moved down to court two to face UCLA.
Junior Savvy Simo and sophomore Lea Monkhouse dropped two matches – one on court three against LSU, and one on their usual court four to Florida State – bringing them to a 4-2 record as a pair.
“We’ve learned how to communicate with each other better and what kind of sets the other one likes,” Monkhouse said. “(Simo) is a very different player than me – she’s more power and I’m a little more shooty. (But) we made some unforced errors and we had a bit of passing trouble too.”
The lineup rotations Saturday included the Bruin’s first all-freshman pair this season, with Abby Van Winkle and Lindsey Sparks defeating LSU’s Taryn Kloth and Maddie Ligon 21-18, 21-17 in the first match of the weekend.
But then Sparks dropped back down to court five to play with senior Izzy Carey – who won the first match in three sets with sophomore Megan Muret – for the remaining matches.
“We’re just trying to overturn every possible stone to see what’s going to make us the strongest in the fours and fives, and I think that’s a strength of our team,” Metzger said. “We’re awfully hard to beat in the fours and fives – and if we can win in both those spots, then we only have to find one win in the ones through threes.”
Van Winkle returned to court three alongside senior Zana Muno, and the pair was the last to finish this weekend in a three-set match with TCU’s Molly Scheel and Taylor Bradley.
Van Winkle stepped to the service line for match point and hit an ace for the 17-21, 21-17, 15-8 win – improving the pair’s record to 12-0.
“I like having (Muno) playing full-time defense for the threes, and that’s why she’s with (Van Winkle),” Metzger said. “You see her in the backcourt – she’s a wizard on defense – so if we can have her doing that 100 percent of the time, that’s going to pay off.”
UCLA will face No. 3 Pepperdine for the third and final time of the regular season Saturday.
The Bruins’ Sunday ranged from a mercy-rule blowout to an extra-inning comeback.
No. 2 UCLA softball (22-1) defeated Boston University (11-7) and Long Beach State (8-14), putting 12 runs past the Terriers in its eighth shutout win of the season and overcoming a three-run deficit to top the Dirtbags in extra innings by a score of 5-3. The Bruins went undefeated in the UCLA/Long Beach State Invitational to extend their winning streak to six games.
In the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader, freshman pitcher Megan Faraimo fanned four batters, allowing five hits and one walk in her fifth full outing of the 2019 season. Sophomore infielder Briana Perez went 4-for-5 with five RBIs, opening the game with a solo home run to right field in the first, and catalyzing the Bruins’ six-run display in the seventh.
Perez said her hitting performance will increase her confidence going into conference play and that games against hard-hitting opponents will propose a positive challenge to the team’s identity.
“I was trying to hit something hard against the ground, which I think ended up working a few times,” Perez said. “My teammates, we’re getting on base, so I couldn’t do it without them. I think it was a really good weekend overall, and we learned a lot about ourselves.”
Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez touched further on UCLA’s high-powered offense and said the resilience of the players to adjust and retain a strong mental focus was crucial despite earning an early lead.
“The first game, although the score ended up showing that we handled it, was a game of adjustments,” Inouye-Perez said. “We are a resilient team – we didn’t get an outcome right away, and so we had people come off the bench to do great things for us.”
The Bruins’ second game saw sophomore pitcher Holly Azevedo give up a three-run home run in the bottom of the first, before redshirt sophomore outfielder Aaliyah Jordan hit a two RBI double in the third to tie the game at 3-3.
Long Beach State took UCLA to extra innings for the first time this season, when sophomore infielder Malia Quarles hit a go-ahead two-run double in the top of the eighth to complete the Bruins’ comeback.
Quarles said she retains a high level of focus by communicating with her teammates before coming off the bench most games.
“I knew I had to (hit) for my team because our coach had enough confidence to put me in that situation,” Quarles said. “I think we did really well. We had a lot of energy and are hitting the ball really hard.”
Inouye-Perez backed her decision to pinch-hit Quarles in consecutive games, noting how squad depth and unity helped UCLA complete its eighth comeback win of 2019.
“(Long Beach State) is a talented, scrappy team, that probably plays their best games against us, and historically it’s just a great battle,” Inouye-Perez said. “The fact that I can go to the bench with talent that is ready to do what they came to this team for is a huge strength for us. (Quarles) came to UCLA to hit, and it was outstanding for her to come through for that big win today.”
The Bruins will look to continue their winning streak in conference play next week, first traveling to Seattle for a three-game series against the Washington Huskies.
The Bruins could not escape the middle of the pack.
No. 4 UCLA women’s golf finished tied for eighth, shooting a 35-over 887 at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. No. 19 Florida State was the lone team to finish under par on the tournament at 2-under 850.
“We were pretty challenged by the greens – they were pretty slow but also really hard, so it was difficult to stop the ball,” said coach Carrie Forsyth. “It was pretty much the opposite of the courses we’ve been playing lately. We didn’t adjust very well, and it showed on our scores.”
The Bruins shot 26-over on par threes during the tournament, nine strokes worse than any other team.
“The greens, being as firm as they were, even though (the par threes) were not long holes, you have to lay on the ball very precisely, and we just didn’t do that,” Forsyth said. “We had some big numbers on some very short par threes because of penalty shots. Ball lands on the green, takes two bounces and goes in the water. The next person sees that and tries to hit a little closer to the front edge, but it falls in the front water.”
UCLA was in ninth place out of 17 teams after an 11-over first round. Senior Beth Wu, junior Mariel Galdiano and sophomore Patty Tavatanakit all shot 2-over Friday.
Galdiano led the Bruins on Saturday, shooting their only even-par round of the tournament. UCLA moved up to seventh place by the end of the second round after improving its score by six strokes.
In the final round, the Bruins were one of five teams with a cumulative score over 300, dropping them into a tie for eighth with No. 23 Furman.
Galdiano was UCLA’s top finisher, tying for 22nd at 6-over after shooting 4-over on Sunday. Wu finished one stroke behind to tie for 27th.
Tavatanakit finished inside the top 10 on par fours at 1-over. However, she tied for the worst individual score on par threes at 10-over to finish tied for 41st at 11-over.
Junior Clare Legaspi shot 18-over to tie for 69th. Freshman Phoebe Yue placed 82nd at 24-over.
UCLA will take a two-week break before participating in a head-to-head match against Denver at the Superstition Mountain Golf Club in Gold Canyon, Arizona.
Students met with representatives from the UCLA administration and UCPD to discuss students’ concerns of increased surveillance on campus.
Administrators, including Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck and Assistant Vice Chancellor Mick Deluca, answered questions about UCLA Policy 133 at a Campus Safety Alliance meeting Thursday. UCLA Policy 133, which aims to regulate security camera use, has been met with student concern since its announcement in September.
The Campus Safety Alliance, a student government organization which aims to increase student input in safety issues, wanted to give administrators and UCPD the chance to address students’ concerns about the policy, said Robert Blake Watson, the Undergraduate Students Association Council internal vice president.
Policy 133 aims to centralize and standardize the collection of data via video cameras that are already installed across the UCLA campus. It would also give UCPD direct access to these security cameras.
Beck said current regulations do not provide standardized rules for all of the cameras on campus.
“We have probably something between 2,500 and 3,500 cameras on campus that exist today, and there is no governing policy associated with how they can and should be used,” Beck said.
UCPD Lt. Kevin Kilgore said the department currently has access to about 10 of these cameras.
Beck added the policy mandates a 90-day maximum for anyone to hold or access the footage.
Some students said they were concerned about how the camera policy might be abused in the future. One student specifically asked whether or not the university had plans to add facial recognition software to the current security system.
While the policy does not allow facial recognition software today, Beck said he thinks the university may be interested in adopting such a measure in the future.
“There is a specific interest in being able to do that for people who have a stay-away order or who shouldn’t be on campus for a legitimate reason why they shouldn’t be here,” Beck said. “There is discussion about that, but we decided that needs to be the next chapter.”
Students said they were concerned by what they see as a lack of student input on the policy.
Matthew William Richard, a CSA coordinator and a second-year political science student, said he thinks the administration should involve students more in the decision-making process.
Watson said he thinks the administration is trying to reach out to students by sending representatives to CS meetings, but they could do a better job at reaching out to more students.
“I think that’s a great first step,” Watson said. “Obviously there can always be more outreach to students.”
Beck said the administration plans on being more aggressive in its attempts to reach students before they make decisions about future policies. The administration held a mandatory period for students to comment on the policy, and Beck claims that the policy was also sent to the Associated Students UCLA and Graduate Students Association leadership.
Richard said he thinks it was good to hear Beck talk about the new policy because it helped him to further analyze it.
“I think it was very good to hear Michael Beck speak about the policy because it gives you a new lens into it and how it really centralizes the system,” Richard said.
UCLA plans to implement Policy 133 by December 2020. Any camera which fails to comply with Policy 133 will be turned off at that time.
A former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said he thinks the UN needs to stand up to governments that allow racial injustice and inequality to exist at an event Friday.
Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein of Jordan reflected on the future of racial justice and equality as the keynote speaker at the Critical Perspectives on Race and Human Rights conference. The conference, hosted at the UCLA School of Law, was organized by the Promise Institute for Human Rights, the Critical Race Studies program and the Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs.
E. Tendayi Achiume, an assistant law professor and UN special rapporteur who helped organized the event, said the programs organized a joint conference this year to address racial injustice and inequality through a human rights perspective because they think recent issues regarding racism and xenophobia have been particularly intense.
“We thought it was an important time to understand what value there is and what value there can be in using a human rights frame to fight for racial justice and to fight for racial equality,” Achiume said.
She said the conference aimed to offer multiple perspectives on these issues and promote collaborative efforts to resolve them.
“Our goal is to bring people who are working nationally within the U.S. and also people who are working in other parts of the world to come together and really think about what value there is in human rights in a way to reimagine how law and legal institutions can advance racial justice and racial equality,” Achiume said.
In his speech, Al Hussein said he thinks the UN’s effectiveness in addressing human rights injustices depends on its members’ efforts.
“The UN is just as pathetic or just as great as the world is out there,” Al Hussein said.
He added he is deeply alarmed by how several government leaders have remained silent about issues regarding racial injustice and equality. He said many of the chief executives of over 37 countries he visited as high commissioner were not aware of violence occurring in various communities around the world.
He said if the UN is to be more effective, it must discourage nationalism and encourage collaboration among its member nations.
“It is a collective effort to solve problems together and if we are going to turn the world around and fight racial injustice we must have numbers and show political power,” he said.
Al Hussein said international institutions should start enforcing human rights policies, rather than simply raising awareness of them.
“We need to move away from highlighting and expressing human rights, and use agitation to enforce human rights,” he said. “We need to oppose all those who degrade us as human beings and fight against them.”
He said he thinks people should take action against human rights issues without fear of criticism, instead of simply learning and writing about them.
“People full of integrity, empathy and courage are found in so many countries – those people need to be our leaders,” he said. “They are the hope and the future to the success of the UN, not the self-seeking, self-serving people.”
Achiume said Al Hussein spoke openly against racism and xenophobia when he was high commissioner and that he would specifically name countries, presidents and leaders who he believed were engaging in racist and xenophobic practices.
“He spoke very openly against racism and xenophobia, and sometimes experienced backlash from powerful countries that had racist and xenophobic people at the top,” Achiume said.
Curtis Harris, a graduate student in law, said the conference gave him the opportunity to learn more about human rights from more accomplished law practitioners, students and activists.
“The conference provided a very incredible framework to further explore issues on racial inequality and injustice,” Harris said.
Al Hussein said he thinks future world leaders should not be afraid to dedicate themselves to the fight for human rights in order for the world to make progress in this area.
“The thing that separates talent from young people and leaders is fear,” Al Hussein said.
A student beekeeping group installed UCLA’s first student-made beehive on campus Friday.
The Bruin Beekeepers at UCLA, an organization that aims to educate students about the native bee population and environmental sustainability, held an event at the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden to install a hive they had been building since the organization was founded in May.
Samiksha Chopra, the internal vice president of Bruin Beekeepers, said the group took almost a year to build the hive because they wanted to ensure the project would be sustainable.
“We could do any easy way out for this and just buy a hive online, but we wanted to feel like it was our own project,” Chopra said.
Chancellor Gene Block attended the hive installation event. Jonathan Fox, president and founder of the Bruin Beekeepers, said he had told Block about the significance of the hive during Block’s student office hours.
“(Installing the hive) is an action that represents that the student body at UCLA is committed to sustainability and committed to ecological conservation,” Fox said.
Attendees at the event were allowed to install a portion of the hive in the botanical gardens.
Jacob Wechsler, a first-year physiological science student, said being able to take part in the installation allowed him to feel like he was able to contribute to the Bruin Beekeepers’ efforts.
The hive is designed to resemble a high-rise apartment rather than a typical hive structure, Fox said.
“A lot of leaf-cutter bees and mason bees actually need little nooks and crannies that are the right centimeter width and depth,” Chopra said. “What we’ve basically done is we’ve provided them with these homes, so they don’t have to look around for them.”
Frank Zhou, the presidential intern of the Bruin Beekeepers, said the club hopes to promote ecological diversity and environmental sustainability.
“This group is focused on the nativist aspect of beekeeping, so we want to help the native pollinators of California,” Zhou said. “We help out the native plants as well because they can co-evolve with each other.”
Fox said the group hopes to encourage students to learn more about bees through hands-on interaction with the insects.
“The whole greater purpose of this club is to just get students to recognize the importance of bees,” Fox said. “I think the best way to do that is to actually work with them hands on.”
Fox said students do not need to worry about getting stung by the bees on campus because native leaf-cutter bees are less aggressive than nonnative honey bees.
Chopra said the club plans to eventually install beehives on the Hill to encourage student interaction.
“We all take so much pride in how beautiful our campus is and that’s due to the fact that we have bees on campus who can pollinate our trees, pollinate our flowers and keep that aesthetic that we love going,” Chopra said.
