Substitute courses a viable option for dead major requirements

Some students are taking substitute classes to complete their degrees because some required courses have not been offered in multiple quarters.

Students in linguistics and other majors said they have to work with their department advisors to find substitutes for classes that are not offered in order to fulfill their requirements.

Linguistics students that choose to combine basic courses in the major with a language concentration or other related fields may have difficulty enrolling in course requirements because some required courses are only offered outside of the linguistics department, said UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez.

Vazquez said the linguistics department has no control over the faculty hired or courses offered in other departments, and other departments may choose not to offer linguistics course requirements, but linguistics advisors have been able to work with all students who are unable to enroll in required courses.

Eric Wells, administrative analyst for the UCLA Academic Senate, a senate composed of faculty and student representatives responsible for reviewing degree programs, said departments may choose to keep a course as part of their major requirements even if it has not been offered for multiple quarters or years if they feel it is an important course for students within the major to take.

Max Nath, a linguistics and psychology student who graduated in 2018, said he was unable to enroll in his final course requirement, an upper division psychology course, because it was prioritized for cognitive science students. Instead, he worked with a linguistic advisor to substitute an upper division linguistics course to complete his degree.

“It was definitely a stressful experience where you’re thinking, ‘Am I not going to graduate?’” Nath said.

Wells said most course requirements that have not been offered for extended periods of time are electives that can easily be substituted with other elective courses.

Students facing this issue can work with their department advisors to find alternative courses that, while not on the course requirement list, can still fulfill their requirements and allow them to obtain their degrees, said Jacquelyn Perez, the Undergraduate Student Affairs Officer in the Department of Linguistics.

“There’s always flexibility,” Perez said.

A review of each degree program takes place every eight years and takes three years to complete, Wells said.

During the review process, the Academic Senate might suggest a program revise its catalog of classes or hire more faculty, Wells added.

Evan Davis-Palley, a linguistics and computer science student who graduated in 2018, said one of his required math and linguistics courses, which was also a prerequisite for a computational linguistics course, had been cancelled indefinitely. He spoke with a linguistics counselor and was able to enroll in the computational linguistics course without the prerequisite.

“The linguistics counselor was always really helpful in figuring out what we were going to do,” Davis-Palley said.

Vasquez said undergraduate academic counselors see very few students with this problem as most students are aware they should work with their departments to find suitable alternatives.

Wells said students’ degrees are completely valid as long as substitute courses are approved by department advisors, and said the course substitutes can be compared to community college course credit and Advanced Placement credit which transfer to UCLA.

“The department is the one making the exception and basically certifying that our students have these skills,” Wells said.

California assembly bill looks to increase Cal Grant access and funding

A California assembly bill, if passed, would expand the Cal Grant system to cover nontuition expenses, increase access and create a Summer Cal Grant program.

Assembly Bill 1314 would phase in reforms to the Cal Grant programs to further expand and simplify them. AB 1314 was passed by the California state assembly on May 24 and is currently going through the legislative process in the California Senate.

Cal Grant Programs provide state-based financial aid to students in a postsecondary education program, including vocational training. Students must meet certain GPA and financial requirements in addition to general eligibility requirements to qualify for a Cal Grant.

Assemblyman Jose Medina, who represents the district containing the UC Riverside campus and co-authored the bill, said AB 1314 would increase funding for financial aid and potentially address rising student debt.

Undergraduate students in the United States graduated with an average student debt of $28,650 in 2017, according to The Institute for College Access and Success. This is up from $12,750 in 1996.

Medina added AB 1314 addresses the total cost of attending college by covering tuition fees and nontuition costs, which the current Cal Grant system doesn’t adequately cover.

Eligibility for the Cal Grant, under the new bill, would no longer be based on GPA, age and years out of high school. Medina said this would allow nontraditional students, who don’t go to college right after high school, to have access to financial aid.

“Students today are not the same traditional students that they were 20 years ago,” Medina said. “We see more working adults, working parents, and these would be individuals who may not qualify for Cal Grants today (but) are going to school and would benefit from Cal Grants.”

Under the current Cal Grant system, students who qualify for Cal Grant A or Cal Grant B are guaranteed a Cal Grant if they meet requirements for the Cal Grant Entitlement Program, according to the California Student Aid Commission, the state agency in charge of administering financial aid.

Cal Grants A and B differ in their eligibility requirements and financial aid coverage, but they are both for students seeking a bachelor’s degree.

Students who don’t meet the requirements for the Cal Grant Entitlement Program but qualify for one of the two grants are placed in the Cal Grant Competitive Program, where limited grants are available. The bill would essentially eliminate the Competitive Program, according to the assembly’s analysis.

About 400,000 students are expected to receive a Cal Grant this year, according to the assembly’s analysis of the bill. The new program would allow 200,000 to 400,000 more students to receive a Cal Grant, according to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Aidan Arasasingham, a board member of the University of California Students Association and a second-year global studies student, said the University of California Student Association along with its sister organizations at the California State University and the California Community College system worked with Medina to craft the bill and include students’ priorities.

UCSA is a coalition of students and student governments in the UC system, including UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Association Council, that advocates for students and participates in the shared governance of the UC.

Arasasingham, who is also USAC’s legislative director, said USAC advocated for the bill as part of UCSA’s systemwide priorities.

“We’ve met with dozens of legislators and staffers in the (Los Angeles) area, both in district here in Los Angeles, but also up in Sacramento,” Arasasingham said. “We’ve hosted phone banking and letter writing sessions, and then we’ve sent student advocates to Sacramento almost weekly, to push for (AB 1314 and other bills) to the finish line.”

AB 1314 would further provide a Summer Cal Grant award for two summer terms to students who qualify for Cal Grant A or B without it affecting their awards during the regular academic year. Medina said providing financial aid over the summer can help undergraduate students graduate within four years.

“I think a lot of students, as they try to complete their college degree in a timely manner, find that going to summer school is almost a necessity,” Medina said. “I know when I was a student, I went to summer school, and that was helpful to me. And I think it would continue to be helpful to students today.”

AB 1314 would also consolidate the Cal Grant A, B and C programs and the Middle Class Scholarship into one program. Medina said the current Cal Grant system is too complicated and hasn’t been reformed in over 20 years. The new system will make it easier for students to navigate, he added.

The assembly bill would also require the CSAC to develop regulations for the program by July 1, 2021.

The state would incur a minimum of $2 billion ongoing costs on top of what is already spent on financial aid if the revised program is fully phased in, according to the Assembly Appropriations Committee’s analysis. The analysis also stated CSAC would incur a one-time cost of about $1 million and an additional ongoing cost of about $2 million.

According to the assembly’s analysis, the state legislature currently spends over $2 billion annually on student financial aid.

Medina said Gov. Gavin Newsom’s final budget, which has to be passed by June 15, will help determine how quickly reforms can be implemented.

“The cost is pretty high … so it’s not going to be done in one year,” he said. “We’re looking to see how we can phase it in.”

UC spokesperson Sarah McBride said the UC has not taken a position on AB 1314 but is sponsoring Senate Bill 461.

SB 461, which is being processed in the California assembly after being passed in the state senate, would also allow Cal Grant A and B recipients to receive Cal Grant awards for up to two summer terms without affecting their regular academic year awards, if passed.

CSAC stated in a press release that college students’ learning outcomes are affected by the rising cost of attendance, rising housing costs and food insecurities. CSAC further stated it supports AB 1314 because it follows CSAC’s recommendations for Cal Grant reform, which includes reducing barriers to accessing the Cal Grant, covering summer coursework and addressing the total cost of attendance.

Charles Nies, CSAC’s governor-appointed UC representative and the UC Merced Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, said CSAC supports the bill, but wants to make amendments to it. He added one of the largest concerns of the bill is that it is too broad and needs to stipulate how the reforms will be carried out in an efficient manner.

Nies added there is a need for more financial aid resources to make education more accessible.

“There’s no question, particularly in the state of California, that low-income, first-generation college students and students of color are not graduating at the same rates as others,” Nies said. “(CSAC wants) to make sure that financial aid is not a barrier in students’ success.”

Arasasingham said students have been advocating for Cal Grant reform for years and will continue to do so until it is carried out.

“(Cal Grant reform) is really one of these issues that should have been fixed a while back that unites all students in improving our graduation rates, our accessibility to higher education, (and) our ability to afford higher education,” Arasasingham said.

NWWNC seeks to increase student engagement following low turnout in May election

The North Westwood Neighborhood Council saw a low voter turnout in its first official election.

Voters elected the NWWNC’s first full-term council May 16. Voter turnout peaked at 270 votes for the highest-voted candidate, which is a decline from the council’s October 25 election to determine interim board members. The council’s October election saw 851 total ballots cast.

The NWWNC was formed following a May 2018 vote to subdivide the jurisdictions of UCLA’s campus, Westwood Village and North Village from the Westwood Neighborhood Council.

Westwood Forward, a coalition of renters, business owners and students, advocated for the subdivision on a platform to serve the northwest Westwood community through prioritizing affordable housing and the growth of businesses and nightlife in Westwood.

Alisha Ranadive, worker stakeholder and chair of the NWWNC Election Committee, said the drop in voter turnout was because the election in May did not directly affect students in the way that the October election did.

“We did not anticipate how hard it would be to get people to care about the neighborhood council,” Ranadive said. “What may have made the last election more successful than this election is the ability to harness student power.”

Ranadive reported that the NWWNC advertised extensively in print, electronically and in-person in order to get the word out about the election. She said the May 16 election served as a learning experience to discover what marketing strategies work for the northwest Westwood community.

Ranadive plans to expand the in-person outreach aspect of campaigning for the next election.

“I want to spend a whole year getting people to know what a neighborhood council is, the power of it and why they need to be involved,” Ranadive said. “I want people to be able to see what a neighborhood council can do for them.”

Michael Skiles, former president and current renter stakeholder of the NWWNC, said students were highly involved in campaigning for the council to break from the WWNC because of how it would directly benefit them. However, he said he thinks the May election was not as significant to students since the council has already been established.

“Students get energized and participate when there is a clear rallying call that affects student interests,” Skiles said.

Most of the candidates were not divided by party alignment and had the same general goals of affordable housing and growth of businesses in Westwood, Skiles added.

“I think that the biggest thing is that there wasn’t that much campaigning on any side because the election didn’t hit ideologies against each other,” Skiles said. “We’re really all on the same team. Non-partisan outreach does not excite and engage voters as much as partisan outreach.”

NWWNC received significantly lower voter turnout than the WWNC in this most recent election, which saw 833 votes cast for the highest-voted candidate.

Skiles said the WWNC’s election saw much higher participation because there was more contention in who would be elected.

“There are two slates running against each other with fundamentally different visions for Westwood,” Skiles said about the WWNC election. “They’re campaigning hard against each other and I would be very surprised if as a result they didn’t get a much higher turnout.”

The NWWNC intends to offer online voting for elections in the future because only one polling place open for a set amount of hours limits accessibility to voters. Ranadive said many people reported not being able to vote due to their work and class schedules.

The council advocated to Los Angeles City Council for implementing online voting for the May election, but the vendor that the city was working with could not establish a secure system in order to accomplish this, Skiles said.

Stephen Box, public information officer for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, said low voter turnout is a standard problem and a basic aspect of community engagement.

“In elections in general, we always strive to engage the community and make voting a meaningful and rewarding experience,” Box said. “I think engaging voters is a constant and ongoing conversation.”

Ranadive said the NWWNC’s election campaign was a challenge, but the council learned important lessons about how to work with the resources they have.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Ranadive said. “I think we’re very energized to capitalize on these lessons and do a better job the next time around.”

UCLA baseball’s road to Omaha cut short by loss to Michigan

This post was updated June 9 at 10:55 p.m.
Just like they did the last time they were the top team in the country, the Bruins fell short of Omaha.

No. 1 seed UCLA baseball (52-11, 24-5 Pac-12) lost to Michigan (46-20, 16-7 Big Ten) 4-2 in a winner-take-all elimination game at Jackie Robinson Stadium for a spot in the 2019 College World Series. The super regional defeat was the first time the Bruins lost a three-game series all year.

“(We) hadn’t lost a series all season long, I’ve never really heard of that,” said coach John Savage. “So this one’s a very very tough one to take.”

UCLA left seven runners on base in the loss and was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Two of those stranded runners came in the bottom of the ninth.

Right after Michigan added an insurance run in the top of the inning, UCLA started a rally thanks to a single by junior right fielder Jeremy Ydens – who would later advance to second on a wild pitch. Cardenas reached first on a hit-by-pitch and was quickly taken out for pinch runner redshirt sophomore outfielder Jordan Prendiz.

“We had a lot of trust in each other,” said junior right-hander Kyle Mora. “I think it showed throughout. We just came out on the wrong end of it.”

Pinch hitter freshman infielder Jake Moberg hit a deep fly to right center that advanced both Prendiz and Ydens. With two outs, McLain stepped up to the plate and grounded out to short, ending UCLA’s season.

“We’ve had some really good teams,” Savage said. “Some have gone to Omaha and some haven’t gone to Omaha, and this is our best that hasn’t gone to Omaha.”

Back in the first inning, but teams failed to reach base, but Michigan broke through with a one-out walk by third baseman Blake Nelson and double down the first base line by left fielder Christan Bullock. Shortstop Jack Blomgren grounded out to junior shortstop Ryan Kreidler, advancing Bullock to third and knocking in Nelson to give the Wolverines a 1-0 advantage.

Freshman right-hander Nick Nastrini was able to get out of the second with a groundout that deflected off of his glove and was fielded by junior second baseman Chase Strumpf for a bang-bang play at first.

In his last game at Jackie Robinson Stadium, senior designated hitter Jake Pries tied the game in the second with a solo homer to over the left center field wall. Pries’ last homer was in an elimination game victory over Baylor in last week’s Los Angeles Regional.

Sophomore center fielder Garrett Mitchell ripped a ball to right field with one down in the third, causing right fielder Jordan Brewer – the Big Ten Player of the Year – to slip and fall. The ball rolled past Brewer and Mitchell was able to leg out his 12th triple of the year.

The next at-bat, Kreidler grounded out to the shortstop, scoring Mitchell from third and giving UCLA a one-run lead.

The Bruins looked to threaten in the fourth as Ydens singled to left with two outs. Freshman catcher Noah Cardenas bounced a grounder to Nelson, who fumbled the ball before throwing to first, which went past the reach of first baseman Jimmy Kerr.

As the Wolverines tried to get the ball back into the infield, Ydens looked to score from home, but got thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

Michigan started a comeback effort in the fifth with a leadoff walk of Nastrini. Coach John Savage pulled the freshman after 75 pitches in his second start since returning from an injury that kept him off the field for three months.

In his second elimination game start, Nastrini went four-plus innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out four Wolverines. The freshman allowed just one earned run over five innings in an elimination game victory over Loyola Marymount on June 2.

Blomgren hit a line drive back up the middle off Mora, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Two batters later with one down, Mora tried to pickoff at first base, which forced Blomgren to run for second, but he slid safely past the tag.

Later in the at-bat, second baseman Ako Thomas’ two-RBI single put the Wolverines back ahead by one – and they never looked back.

“To come in here as a Big Ten team – and an upstart team certainly – maybe (a win) was not expected,” said coach Erik Bakich. “But the group of kids we got on this team, they’re fighters, they’re believers, they’re gritty, they’re tough. We’re here because of those guys.”

UCLA tried to mount a comeback in the seventh when Cardenas led off with a double into the right-center gap. It was Cardenas’ first hit since June 2 – when the Bruins eliminated Baylor in the Los Angeles Regional – and his first in his previous 17 at-bats. A sacrifice bunt by junior left fielder Jack Stronach moved Cardenas to third with one out.

With the infield in, freshman third baseman Matt McLain’s groundout held Cardenas at third. Mitchell could not score Cardenas as he slapped a soft grounder to first base and was called out when left-hander Tommy Henry beat Mitchell to the bag.

“It was a tough weekend offensively,” Savage said. “(Michigan) has outstanding pitching. (Michigan) has probably as good of three starters as you’ll see in the country. They have three No. 1s really.”

Michigan entered the game as the only team to beat UCLA more than once this season and is now the only team to own a winning record against the Bruins.

“(I’m) so proud of my guys and this season,” Savage said. “It was just a tough way to finish. But it’s baseball. You deal with it and you move on. This program is in very good shape, obviously, and (it’s) time to look toward the future.”