GSA recap – Jan. 23

The Graduate Students Association is the voice of graduate students on campus. The association meets for forum every three weeks and takes positions on current issues affecting graduate students. Forum meetings are at 5:30 p.m. in the Bruin Viewpoint Room in Ackerman Union.

Presentations

  • UCPD Lt. Kevin Kilgore said officers are trained to stop drivers in traffic based on probable cause, not sexual orientation or race.
  • Eraj Basseri introduced a new student housing program called The Agora on 900 Hilgard Avenue, which aims to provide students with shared amenities, open workplaces, instructional spaces and meeting areas. Basseri added that construction should be complete within the next five years.
  • Donald Shoup, a professor in the department of urban planning said GSA should endorse a student-fee referendum to make public transit free for students.
  • GSA President Michael Skiles said he hopes the association will vote on a resolution to support the proposal to add more student representatives to the Westwood Community Council.

Agenda

  • The association approved a resolution to support The Agora student housing program.
  • The association passed a resolution to support the fee referendum to make public transit free for students.

Officer reports

  • Skiles said he met with Congressman Ted Lieu to talk about the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ plan to create safer walking and biking pathways for pedestrians.
  • Eric Hu, GSA vice president of internal affairs, said GSA has changed its office hours from Tuesday and Thursday to Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Kerckhoff Hall 316.
  • Keara Pina, a proxy for GSA vice president of external affairs, said there will be a campus community conference Feb. 23 at UC San Diego. The conference aims to promote inclusivity across the University.

Proposed congestion pricing would fund transport projects for 2028 Olympic Games

Los Angeles Metro is considering charging drivers for using LA roadways during peak traffic hours.

The Metro Board of Directors proposed implementing a congestion pricing policy at their January meeting. Congestion pricing is a form of tolling that would take place in the most traffic-heavy areas of Los Angeles.

Dave Sotero, a communications manager for LA Metro, said the funding from these tolls could be used to finance eight highway and transportation projects for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games under the Twenty-Eight by ’28 Initiative. The initiative’s objective is to eliminate traffic congestion and reduce LA’s carbon footprint.

Sotero added the Metro Purple Line Extension to Westwood will not be affected because construction is slated to be completed by then. The Purple Line Extension is a rail project that will allow for more accessibility when traveling between downtown Los Angeles and Westwood. The extension will add two stations near UCLA, including one at the intersection of Westwood and Wilshire boulevards and another near the Veterans Affairs hospital.

Michael Manville, an associate professor of urban planning at UCLA, said he thinks congestion pricing could help improve LA’s traffic.

“If we really want to reduce congestion then what we have to do is take the entirety of these congested roads and put a price on them,” Manville said. “Those of us who study traffic congestion generally agree that the reason roads get congested is that they’re underpriced.”

Congestion pricing has proven to be effective around the world in cities like Singapore, Stockholm and London, according to a Metro board motion. Manville said he thinks congestion pricing relies on the logic that people should be charged a fee for using any scarce resource.

“Roads are very valuable pieces of land. At busy times, the road should cost more than not-busy times,” Manville said. “Water, electricity, your telephone – those are scarce resources and fees are charged so you don’t crash the system.”

Manville added all lanes on roadways would be tolled if the board approves the congestion policy. He said these lanes could operate similarly to FasTrak, a lane-tolling system in California that charges drivers by signaling an electronic device attached to their cars.

“You could use the exact same thing, drive under a toll entry and depending on what time of day it is, it would deduct more or less money,” Manville said.

The Metro board said in the motion they think congestion pricing has the potential to become a significant source of funding for free transit. However, some students said they think the policy will negatively affect low-income drivers.

Jasmine Harris, a fourth-year anthropology student, commutes from Fullerton to UCLA and said she thinks some people commute to LA because they cannot afford to live there, so congestion pricing would disproportionately affect those people.

“You have to think about how many people commute to Los Angeles because they can’t afford to live in Los Angeles. Why would you be taxing these people more?” Harris said. “I’ll be okay with it if they give back to people that are having trouble making ends meet with transportation-related expenses.”

Juan Munoz, a fourth-year political science student, commutes from Southeast Los Angeles to UCLA and said he thinks people should not have to pay to use public roads.

“A road that’s been constructed using public taxpayer money should be accessible to everyone, even if it’s in the name of reducing traffic,” Munoz said. “There could be other ways to bring more funding to Los Angeles rather than pushing that burden to everyday people.”

Sotero said this policy would not go into effect immediately and is still subject to board approval.

“There are not any immediate plans to implement,” Sotero said. “It wouldn’t be for a couple of years before you could even see a pilot.”

UCLA alumni, employees elected as delegates to California Democratic Party

Three UCLA alumni won delegate positions in the California Democratic Party.

Isaac Bryan, Elina Antoniou and Wayne Liebman are three of 14 delegates who were elected Sunday to represent Assembly District 54, which includes Westwood Village, Culver City, Palms and other areas in west Los Angeles. Two UCLA employees were also elected.

Assembly delegate election meetings are held once every two years to elect seven self-identified women and seven candidates who do not self-identify as women, according to the California Democratic Party website.

The elected delegates are tasked with promoting the party agenda, endorsing candidates for office and endorsing resolutions and ballot measures. They also elect party officials including a new party chair and a presidential nominee, according to Antoniou.

The district election had the largest turnout in Assembly District 54’s history, with over 800 votes cast, said Bryan, a policy adviser for the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.

Bryan, who graduated from UCLA in 2017, said he wants to help improve equity in the criminal justice and legal system, as well as transparency and accountability in the party.

He added he wants his election to show current UCLA students it is possible to improve representation in their local communities.

“I hope my election will inspire students of color and students who don’t feel represented in the political process to feel inspired to launch their own campaign and race for offices beyond,” Bryan said.

Antoniou is an attorney for Bergman Dacey Goldsmith law firm and a former Daily Bruin staffer. Antoniou, who graduated from UCLA in 2007 and UCLA School of Law in 2010, said she wants to endorse Democrat candidates who are more progressive and inclusive. She was also a delegate two years ago.

She added she wants to help find a new state party chair after the previous chair, Eric Bauman, resigned amid sexual harassment allegations last year.

Antoniou also said she was politically active while at UCLA, and thinks more students should be engaged in politics.

“I just remember being especially interested in the political events on campus and feeling like it was really important for students to take a stand and be politically engaged,” Antoniou said.

Wayne Liebman is an anesthesiologist at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. He graduated from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and completed his residency at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in 1978.

Liebman said he wants to help stop corruption within the party by endorsing candidates who do not accept money from political action committees or other sources.

“We would like to end the pernicious effect that money has and the corrupting effect that it has,” Liebman said.

Two UCLA employees were also elected as assembly delegates.

Leah Pressman is an assistant psychology professor at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. She was not immediately available for comment.

Steve Dunwoody is the deputy director of the UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science. He declined to comment on his goals as a delegate.

Contributing reports by Stephanie Lai and Maanas Orguanti, Daily Bruin contributors.

Veg Pledge encourages students to maintain sustainable diet for three weeks

Over three hundred students will follow a sustainable diet for three weeks as part of UCLA’s annual Veg Pledge.

During Veg Pledge, which started Jan. 15, participants living on the Hill try a vegan or vegetarian diet until Feb. 5, and enter contests on social media to win prizes for their efforts. Veg Pledge is organized by Team Green, a campus organization focused on encouraging environmental sustainability on the Hill. Team Green organizes events such as beach cleanups and Energy Games.

The goal of Veg Pledge is to encourage students to stick to their dietary goals and to educate them about the environment, said Elizabeth Popescu, a second-year biology student and Team Green coordinator.

Students can choose to be fully vegetarian or vegan, or simply reduce their meat consumption, Popescu said.

She added that Team Green sends out weekly surveys to ask if participants have stuck to their goals. Each survey also provides educational tips and tools such as an online calculator that tells participants how many gallons of water and tons of carbon dioxide their diet requires.

Another survey encouraged students to eat local foods that are currently in season, such as avocados and carrots, to eliminate environmental damage that results from transporting and processing food that is not in season.

Popescu said she thinks students tend to believe that diet does not have a large effect on climate change.

“I know I had the misconception that the effects of transportation, especially living in LA, were greater than diet, but meat consumption has a greater effect on the environment,” she said.

Audrey Pham, Team Green’s social media director and a Daily Bruin staffer, said she thinks eating less meat also provides many health benefits, which she learned from her cluster program course, “Food: A Lens for Environment and Sustainability.”

“When you consume other animals, which is higher on the food chain, you are also consuming all the negative energy that animal has eaten,” she said. “Eating at a lower trophic level, such as fruit and vegetables, is actually more helpful to your body.”

Pham, a first-year American literature and culture student, said cows excrete a lot of methane, which can harm both the environment and human health.

“We often think only privileged people can afford to be vegan and will use that to become skinny, but that’s not the case,” she said.

Popescu said that each week, Team Green motivates participants to continue their pledge by giving them small prizes that relate to sustainability, such as a reusable grocery bag or composted notebook. Two people will win a Bruin Plate cookbook and Hydroflask at the end of the three weeks.

Despite Team Green’s efforts to support participants, Popescu said she thinks some of the dining halls on the Hill, especially the quick-service ones, don’t offer many vegan or vegetarian options she would eat.

Several students said the Veg Pledge encouraged them to try a more plant-based diet.

Vivi Li, a first-year cognitive science student, said she heard about Veg Pledge through her Sustainability Living Learning Community. She said participating in Veg Pledge made her realize she could commit to being fully vegetarian in the future.

However, Li, who is from China, said she thinks it is much easier to be vegetarian or vegan in Los Angeles, and she will probably not continue the diet at home.

Alexandra Li, a second-year bioengineering student, said she thinks it is difficult for students to commit to Veg Pledge during weekends because they travel often and rely on to-go options.

Alexandra Li said she was motivated to sign up for Veg Pledge after watching the global warming documentary “Before the Flood” and hearing that eating a vegan diet can also improve personal health. She said she has had trouble maintaining the diet because it is not always feasible when she is busy during midterm season.

Gabrielle Le, a second-year human biology and society student, said she thinks a month is the perfect goal for someone trying a vegetarian or vegan diet for the first time, and she hopes to continue eating lower amounts of animal products after Veg Pledge is over.

Pham said even though Veg Pledge is only three weeks long, she hopes students’ success will encourage them to reduce consumption of animal products in the future.