Men’s basketball to play winless Cal in conference game

The Bruins are at risk of stringing together their second four-game losing streak of the season.

But interim coach Murry Bartow said they’re done looking in the rearview mirror.

“There’s just no time to sit around and whine about it,” Bartow said. “You’ve got to move to the next game.”

UCLA men’s basketball (12-12, 5-6 Pac-12) will hit the road to take on California (5-18, 0-11) Wednesday night. The Bruins took down the Golden Bears at home in the first weekend of Pac-12 play, putting up a season-high 98 points.

That game was just the second under Bartow, and freshman guard David Singleton – who played a season-high 25 minutes Saturday – said a lot has changed in the five-plus weeks since UCLA’s first meeting with Cal.

“Matchupwise, we’ve just got to go out and we’re not even thinking about the game that happened in January,” Singleton said. “We’re thinking about, ‘OK, we’re going in their house,’ it’s a totally different environment but same mindset – we have to get the job done and handle business.”

While the Bruins have had their fair share of losing spurts this season, the Bears are in the midst of a 12-game losing streak and a winless conference slate. Like UCLA, Cal’s top four scorers are all averaging double-digit points per game, but the Bruins are averaging 78.1 points per game to the Bears’ 70.

UCLA also averages 15.2 assists per game – 4.5 more than Cal – something sophomore guard Chris Smith said the team focused on Saturday when Bartow told the Bruins they had to get to 20 assists against Utah.

“We go into every game trying to get assists and share the ball,” Smith said. “That’s really what we try to do, but that was the first time we put an actual number on it.”

Smith and the Bruins hit Bartow’s benchmark on the dot, giving them their third game of the season with 20 or more assists.

UCLA’s assist leader is sophomore guard Jaylen Hands, who also leads the entire Pac-12 with 6.5 helpers per game. Hands said that despite being five games out of first place in the conference, the Bruins have plenty to play for.

“There’s motivation everywhere,” Hands said. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to go out into the next game and … win. I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to go out into the next game and … get better as a player.”

Despite falling under .500 in conference play for the first time since the 2015-16 season, the Bruins are still two games out of second place and a first round bye in the Pac-12 tournament.

“Win the next game – that’s my goal,” Bartow said. “We still think there’s a lot to play for in terms of seeding in Vegas.”

UCLA and Cal will tip off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night in Haas Pavilion.

Gymnastics to face Arizona with improvements in mind for more perfect 10s

Coach Valorie Kondos Field said the Bruins have room for improvement.

Despite two perfect 10s and a record-breaking all-around performance for No. 3 UCLA gymnastics (5-0, 4-0 Pac-12), the Bruins posted a 197.600 − their third-lowest score of the season − against No. 18 Washington (2-3, 2-2) Sunday.

“We need to get (the gymnasts) to know that they can be great,” the coach said. “They don’t need to take extra steps or doubt themselves. There was no crazy out-of-controlness, but (they) have to learn to do the skills first and then worry about the landings after the skills.”

No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Florida and UCLA are the only teams to score higher than 197.475 this season. In the Bruins’ six dual meets they have only produced two scores below 197.600.

Kondos Field said while she has noticed improvement, she has yet to see UCLA pull together four standout events in one meet.

“We need to go bigger on vault, for one thing,” Kondos Field said. “We need to go big and find our landings. We need to do bigger routines than we are doing and keep control.”

Junior Kyla Ross, who scored her first career perfect 10 on vault and third perfect 10 of the year, as well as the highest score by any all-rounder so far this season Sunday, said that she wanted to work on mental preparedness before the Bruins return to the gym for competition.

“I’ve been learning how to stay in the moment,” Ross said. “I want to deliver my best routine at the right moment, and I want to have all great routines in one day. That is mostly going to be about deepening (my) routine and making it to the best of (my) ability.”

Senior Katelyn Ohashi − who scored her second perfect 10 on floor exercise Sunday − agreed gymnastics is a mental battle. Despite her perfect floor routine and near-perfect bars performance, Ohashi said the Bruins have work to do before they compete again.

“Every meet we’ve gotten better, but there are a lot of things that we can clean up for next time,” Ohashi said. “We still have mistakes here and there. I was a little crooked on my back handsprings, so I split my legs a little more than I wanted to on my layout to correct for everything. We need to build up confidence. We practice so great in the gym, we just need to hone in a little on the details.”

The Bruins took the top three spots in every event against the Huskies and won each event with a score of 49.300 or higher, extending their streak of consecutive events with scores above 49.000 to 40.

UCLA has six perfect 10s on the season and is one of only two teams to record a perfect score in 2019.

“We are still playing with the lineup a little bit and really trying to figure out where the judges are deducting so we know if we can go home and fix them or if they are inherent reductions,” Kondos Field said. “The team understands that there is not an athlete that has ever lived that has had a perfect game or a perfect meet. You make small mistakes, but you just have to adjust.”

The Bruins will return home for the first time since Jan. 21 on Saturday when they take on No. 25 Arizona (1-5, 1-4).

Rocket club refines safety protocol in response to accidents at other universities

UCLA faculty will now exercise greater control over a student-run rocket club due to safety concerns.

New members of Rocket Project at UCLA will be required to go through a more formalized curriculum that will provide more structured instruction on rocketry and safety. Additionally, student leaders, who were previously chosen by the student members of the club, will now be chosen by the faculty.

The mechanical and aerospace engineering department led these changes as part of a nationwide push to ensure safety in collegiate rocketry in response to recent accidents at other rocket clubs across the country.

Four University of Idaho students were hospitalized after a rocket fuel explosion in 2017, according to The Associated Press. Similarly, in 2018 a Virginia Tech rocket’s motor fired while students were working on it, further raising concerns about safety.

Leaders will now be chosen based on a stricter set of criteria that includes technical ability, mentorship and participation in the club’s outreach programs.

Caleb Lessard, vice president of Rocket Project at UCLA and third-year aerospace engineering student, said he thinks this is a positive change because it will encourage students to be more well-rounded.

Anil Nair, an aerospace engineering graduate student who currently serves as liaison between the club and the department, said the new criteria will make sure new leaders have a vested interest in the club’s future and help core values stay consistent.

Some members said they are mostly optimistic about the changes but are still unsure about how they will play out in reality.

Kellen Cheng, a first-year aerospace engineering student, said he thinks the current structure can be disorganized, and a more coherent curriculum might benefit shy or slow-learning members.

However, he said that the new method of leadership selection might alienate students without strong social skills, and the club might lose talented members.

“Everything sounds good in theory,” Cheng said. “We’ll see how they implement it.”

Nair said the new structure will also ensure members are trained to use equipment that could be dangerous. Before, there was no way of making sure members were properly trained, Nair added.

He also said the Rocket Project has received an influx of university and private funding due to an increased interest in rocketry across the country. It has allowed Rocket Project to handle equipment and materials that can be dangerous, especially without any formal training.

“Sometimes people skip from one project to another. It’s bad from a safety point of view,” Nair said. “You don’t really appreciate what you’re doing.”

In addition to a more extensive safety training, the new curriculum will also include an introductory rocketry course and provide students the opportunity to practice building rockets.

Lessard said these programs aim to help freshman and transfer students acclimate to the club. He said he thinks the programs will give new members a path to learn everything they need, and help them feel less intimidated.

Since 2016, Rocket Project at UCLA has grown from about 20 to over 250 active members. They have also set an altitude record for a student-built liquid propellant rocket, placed second at the Spaceport America Cup for a hybrid rocket and created new community service outreach programs.

Mitchell Spearrin, a professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department and faculty advisor for Rocket Project, said he thinks the changes to the program are necessary to improve safety training and promote mentorship. However, he said he is impressed by the accomplishments that the students have achieved over the past three years.

“I’ve been really proud of what all the students have been able to do in the past couple years. They really have been the drivers,” he said. “They are really the energy that’s created it.”

Law professors discuss free speech protections on college campuses

A law professor said all forms of free speech, including hate speech, should be protected on university campuses.

John Villasenor, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, spoke with Richard Epstein, a law professor at New York University and University of Chicago, about the First Amendment and its applications to business, higher education and politics at an event Tuesday.

The event was put on by the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, a non-partisan organization under UCLA School of Law that aims to promote the principles of freedom, federalism and judicial restraint.

Epstein said he feels individual opinions should not be suppressed and that self-censorship has become an increasingly worrying problem, especially in university classrooms. He added students sometimes fear disagreeing with their professors, leading them to censor their opinions in their classes.

He said students are entitled to their own opinions and should not be fearful of sharing their opinions to their peers and to their professors, even if their professors may disagree with them.

“I don’t mind finding situations where teachers disagree,” Epstein said. “I think it’s wrong for teachers to engage in mocking … with respect to students with views they disagree with.”

Epstein added businesses such as Google have recently encountered issues regarding free speech and the First Amendment.

He said a former Google employee filed a suit against the company in 2018 after the employee was fired for circulating a memo suggesting women were inferior to men in technology jobs.

While he felt the executives at Google were entitled to their opinions, Epstein said he did not think there was cause to fire the employee simply because of differing perspectives.

Epstein said people should not suppress other individuals’ speech, even if that speech is hateful. He added people can demonstrate support by bolstering the victim of hate speech, but not by suppressing the instigator.

“You can go home or you can speak against it, but you can’t suppress it,” Epstein said.

Vinson Lin, a law student, said as a student from Taiwan, he felt free speech in America is an interesting topic because issues surrounding free speech and political correctness have become more contentious during President Donald Trump’s presidency.

“The American system is like a model of free exchange of ideas,” Lin said.

Elena Torres-Pepito, a second-year economics student, said she attended the event because she is interested in free speech and the role it plays in today’s contentious political climate.

“You wonder what really is free speech,” Torres-Pepito said.

Villasenor said a recent change to the UCLA faculty hiring process requires prospective faculty interested in promotions to provide statements describing their contributions to equity, diversity and inclusion.

Epstein said he is opposed to these changes because he thinks they restrict honest opinions of prospective faculty.

“For young people, the ability to navigate this stuff is so difficult that most of the people that I know that want to get teaching positions – they gravitate away from hot-button constitutional issues,” Epstein said.

He added that the new change may deter conservative thinkers from applying for jobs at more liberal institutions, and encourage them to work at conservative institutions instead.

“I think it’s wonderful that they go there, but I think one of the great weaknesses of having great conservative thinkers go to these great think tanks that are conservative is they don’t have a chance to interact with students – some of whom they agree with, and some of whom they do not,” Epstein said.

He added institutions should not force diversity of opinion on prospective faculty, and should let diversity of opinion develop naturally among faculty.

“If you search for excellence given the change in the conversation of the workforce, you will end up with diversity,” Epstein said. “But I think if you start with the work for diversity and hope to get excellence from that, you’ll only end up with mediocrity.”

Class aims to bridge political divide between Hindi and Urdu languages

A UCLA professor aims to bridge the political and cultural divides between students of Indian and Pakistani heritage by bringing them together in a Hindi-Urdu language class.

Gyanam Mahajan, an Asian languages and cultures professor, has been teaching the class at UCLA for over a decade. She said she hopes teaching both Hindi and Urdu as one language in her lectures can help students reconcile their differing views regarding controversial South Asian geopolitics.

India and Pakistan have had a long history of military conflict over territorial disputes and have fought four wars since they gained independence from the British Empire in 1947. In February 2018, Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistan-based extremist group, launched a surprise attack on an Indian military base, according to the New York Times. The Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S.-based think tank, warned in a report updated Friday that attacks like this could trigger a severe military confrontation between these two nuclear-armed nations.

Decades of hostility between the two countries have driven a wedge into a historically shared cultural identity and language, Mahajan said.

Hindi and Urdu were considered synonymous terms for a common language spoken across Northern India and Pakistan before and shortly after the partition of India. Today, however, Hindi is popularly considered an exclusively Indian language and Urdu exclusively Pakistani, Mahajan said.

Mahajan said the only difference between the two languages is the scripts they are written in. Hindi uses a Devanagari script while Urdu uses a Nastaliq script, but both convey an otherwise identical Hindi-Urdu language, historically known as Hindustani.

“There is no way that Hindi-Urdu can be two separate languages. All the function words are identical,” Mahajan said. “The grammar is completely identical.”

In fact, Hindi-Urdu continues to be spoken in Northern India and Pakistan, by South Asians abroad and in Bollywood movies. For Mahajan, this forced separation of a once-unified language can be attributed to the formation of separate national identities and the adversarial perception of the “other.”

“I think it is very convenient for politicians to distract attention away from their own inadequacies … by instilling this concept of the other,” she said. “The moment you have this other, you have someone you can vilify and blame.”

Despite widespread nationalist propaganda from both countries, Indians and Pakistanis are not so different, she said. She saw this for herself when she first left her native India to attend an academic conference in France.

“I spotted someone wearing a salwar kameez and felt a natural affinity with her,” Mahajan said. “She was from Pakistan. I couldn’t even tell the difference in what she looked like, what she spoke, what she wore, what she ate. … I mean, where is the problem, where is the difference?”

Mahajan said she believes her Hindi-Urdu class rejects the metaphorical wall between Indians and Pakistanis that she thinks was constructed for political reasons.

“In one way, it was simply a question of teaching a practical language to a set of people to remove biases,” she said. “Why, on purpose, bring about an unnecessary, artificial split that leads to reinforcing stereotypes that go well beyond language?”

Students in Mahajan’s class said they think her message of tolerance is noble.

Sanjay Kumar, a third-year biology student of Indian heritage, said this class has encouraged him to interact with students of Pakistani heritage.

“It was interesting to understand that borders don’t really make actual differences, that we’re more similar than we think,” he said.

Simrandeep Shergill, a third-year political science student of Indian heritage, said she had never regularly interacted with Pakistanis before she took the class.

“Meeting students from the other country makes us feel that we’re not really that different,” she said. “We have the same origins, language and a lot of other similarities.”

Shergill added that she thinks peace talks between India and Pakistan are not likely to result in substantive reconciliation between the countries, despite it being a desirable goal for both countries’ citizens.

The Indian and Pakistani governments have often demonstrated this apathy toward long-term peace, frequently engaging in diplomatic disputes, according to the Times of India. As recently as Feb. 1, the Times of India reported that Pakistan summoned India’s high commissioner to Islamabad to protest the summoning of a Pakistani top diplomat to New Delhi.

Shergill added that conflicts can only be resolved as long as both sides wish to resolve them.

“Language could break down the barriers between the people of the two nations, but (cannot resolve) the politics,” she said.

Mahajan begins all classes with greetings in English, Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi and Gujarati to demonstrate the cultural solidarity she says South Asians aspire to.

She said she also teaches her students to effectively combat any ignorance they may encounter.

“Even around campus today there are other students who come from India who will say, ‘Urdu is a different language from Hindi.’ My students are equipped with enough solid arguments to prove to them that it is obviously not true,” she said.

Mahajan said she thinks students who are aware of the superficiality of the differences between Hindi and Urdu and of the perceived differences between Indians and Pakistanis will be better able to combat intolerance and conflict.

“I have a great hope that my students … will have a more tolerant attitude,” she said. “Right now, each one of my students is an ambassador for peace.”

LA City Council members express opposition to new domestic violence definition

Los Angeles City Council members opposed changes made to the definition of domestic violence on the United States Department of Justice website.

The DOJ Office on Violence Against Women changed the definition of domestic violence on its website in April, limiting the definition to only felony or misdemeanor crimes. Councilmembers Paul Koretz, Nury Martinez and Monica Rodriguez spoke out against the change Feb. 1 and moved for a resolution for the City Council to oppose any administrative action limiting the definition.

According to an archived version of the DOJ website, domestic violence was originally defined as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship and constituted physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions taken against a partner.

The current definition on the same website is shortened, stating domestic violence only includes felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by current or former spouses, intimate partners or other persons.

Koretz, who represents City Council District 5, which includes UCLA, said narrowing the definition discredits victims and removes their qualifications for recovery, according to a press release.

Alison Simard, a spokesperson for Koretz, said the district wanted to ensure that victims of certain types of domestic abuse no longer encompassed by the new definition still receive proper support.

“There are people who may not have been physically struck but have been emotionally tortured, and we want to be sure they’re still going to receive the services they need,” Simard said.

Alicia Oeser, director of UCLA’s Campus Assault Resources & Education program, said the change to the DOJ’s website hasn’t changed how the law defines and treats domestic violence.

“I think that that really is the important distinction, that factually we should really get right that it hasn’t changed the legal statute,” Oeser said. “The criminal statute used to prosecute crimes of domestic violence is not impacted by this and cannot be changed by the president.”

Allison Korn, an assistant dean for experiential education at the UCLA School of Law, said laws regarding domestic violence have not changed, but the narrowing of this definition may cause victims to think otherwise and discourage them from seeking help.

“I believe that the Department of Justice has said that they will continue to enforce the statute, the law hasn’t in itself changed,” Korn said. “What most advocates in this case are concerned about is that by changing the definition, the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women may decide only to support – provide grant money, provide training materials or other supportive resources – only to a very narrow definition of victims or survivors of domestic violence.”

Korn added the changed definition only takes the criminal aspects of domestic violence into account.

“This new definition suggests that domestic violence only exists in the criminal scenario,” Korn said. “So it would have to rise to the level of criminal conduct in order for women and men, anyone experiencing an intimate partner violence, to receive resources and support.”

Allison Randall, chief of staff for the DOJ’s OVW, said in an email statement that the office continues to follow the legal definition of domestic violence rather than the definition on their website and funds are still being properly dispersed to domestic violence programs.

“OVW has always used the statutory definition in carrying out its mission,” Randall said. “By following the statute, the department ensures the funds made available by Congress are employed in the most effective manner possible to reduce violence and to assist crime victims.”

Koretz, Martinez and Rodriguez also introduced a motion last week asking the Los Angeles Police Department to report any impacts to federally funded anti-domestic violence programs caused by the definition change.

Oeser said even if the legal definition of domestic violence is not changed, the societal definition may change as a result of the DOJ’s actions, which could impact how domestic violence is handled in the future.

“The way we engage with each other is going to be based on a different set of standards and expectations for our behavior, and the ability to say ‘Well, the government didn’t count this’ is nearly as important as the actual change,” Oeser said. “But still there is an important conversation around why this change has merit because of the way it will impact our cultural and shared society.”

Oeser added she hopes the definition change won’t affect students seeking help.

“We still understand relationship violence as encompassing many facets of behavior that may never include physical violence and certainly do not have to be reported as crimes,” Oeser said. “It is not our job to measure, to judge or determine someone’s experience.”

Former state Sen. Kevin de León to teach public policy courses at UCLA

Kevin de León will join the UCLA faculty this spring.

De León, former president pro tempore of the California State Senate, will teach courses in public policy at the Luskin School of Public Affairs for both undergraduate and graduate students.

De León will be teaching a class tentatively titled “California Policy Challenges: A Policymaker’s Perspective” beginning in the spring quarter, de León said.

De León worked in the state Legislature for 12 years beginning in 2006. He began in the Assembly, then was elected to the Senate, where he served as president. De León also ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 2018, but was defeated by Sen. Dianne Feinstein. He also announced Monday he plans to run for the March 2020 Los Angeles City Council election.

De León will also work with UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Initiative. He will hold an advisory position that will allow him to conduct research regarding how domestic policy challenges affect Latinos, according to a university press release.

The Latino Policy & Politics Initiative researches legislation affecting Latinos and Californians.

De León said in an email statement he is excited to be a professor for a university that rejected his application as an undergraduate.

“From the state capitol to the forefront of the industries that make California the world’s fifth largest economy to my own US Senate campaign, I have continually found myself in the company of UCLA graduates, students, and faculty whose idealism and tenacity have inspired me to be the best advocate possible for the people of California,” de León said in the statement.

Sonja Diaz, executive director and co-founder of the initiative, said de León’s involvement with LPPI will benefit students and the program’s partnerships with community organizations and elected officials.

“I am ecstatic to welcome Kevin de León to UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Initiative,” Diaz said. “He will be instrumental in connecting data and facts to the work of his state legislative colleagues in and beyond California.”

Diaz added she believes de León’s stances on environmental and immigration issues have helped to improve the lives of Californians.

De León was the first Latino in more than a century to serve as president pro tempore, according to a university press release. Throughout de León’s political career, he has worked on fighting climate change, rebuilding the state’s infrastructure, improving public education, and establishing workplace and health care equity, the press release said.

Coby Arteaga, a first-year public affairs student, said he thinks de León can add more to the public affairs courses he has been taking.

“Having (de León) as part of UCLA’s faculty will be beneficial to students aspiring to enter the public service sector,” Arteaga said. “He will be able to bring firsthand knowledge, experiences of public policy in action and give context to subjects other professors can’t.”

De León said he looks forward to sharing his legislative experience with students to give them an insider’s perspective on what it takes to create legislation in California.

Christian Israelian, a first-year public affairs student, said he would be interested in taking a class with such an influential leader in California politics.

“I would love to see what he says about some issues we learn in public affairs,” Israelian said. “I have some issues with his record, such as him skirting around the edges when asked about progressive policies, and might challenge him on it while in class.”