Daily Bruin – Page 275

Editorial: Lack of diversity in Geffen hiring process leads to lack of excellence

This post was updated Jan. 28 at 4:10 p.m.

The only thing worse than a lack of commitment to diversity is a lack of commitment to looking diverse.

The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior is struggling to show even that.

The acclaimed institute, which jointly conducts research and provides clinical services to Angelenos with mental illnesses, is choosing a new director and psychiatry chair. Per protocol, the position is being chosen by a faculty search committee, which vets and recommends faculty candidates for selection.

UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, in an effort to promote more diverse hiring practices, has rules and recommendations surrounding search committees. The dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine implemented a rule requiring 25 percent of search committees’ members be women or from underrepresented communities

The Semel Institute’s 11-person committee consists of seven white men, three white women and one Latino man.

All the white committee members are doctors. The lone person of color isn’t.

The panel’s task: selecting a capable leader in the field of neuropsychiatry who can cater to an increasingly diverse Los Angeles populace.

It’s obvious why the community should be concerned about the David Geffen School of Medicine’s methodology for seeking out a capable leader of the Semel Institute. Providing effective patient care to institutionally neglected communities requires understanding the socioeconomic and cultural barriers individuals from these groups face.

That can’t be done by a committee pulled from the early 20th century. We all should be worried that school of medicine administrators, who claim to be committed to the institute’s excellence, still need to be told that.

Semel Institute faculty hinted as much when they piled into town halls earlier this month to share numerous frustrations with how Kelsey Martin, dean of the school of medicine, and Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health, have sought out the institute’s new leader.

Martin, for example, defended the search committee’s configuration because it meets university guidelines. Spisso then dismissed faculty members’ crucial questions about the committee’s composition.

Technically, they’re right: The committee is, in fact, less than 75 percent white men.

But that’s a facile way of running the most diverse department within the school of medicine. The City of Angels is not 90 percent white. And at a time when university leaders need to become more attuned to the exclusion of women and people of color, UCLA’s school of medicine is sending a troubling message that diversity is only worth it in the institution’s brochures and public relations, if even that.

And we need not peddle unproductive conflations of quality being sacrificed for the sake of having a more representative search committee: Administrators quite easily could expand the panel to make room for voices from the underrepresented communities UCLA claims to value.

Sure, the medical profession is, as a whole, composed primarily of white men. But prestigious institutions, including the National Institutes of Health and the Association of American Medical Colleges, already encourage diversity in their explanations of good practice. Even UCLA’s school of medicine states diversity is an “unequivocal component of excellence.”

UCLA needs to be better than the status quo. The fact that a group is underrepresented is no justification for intentionally keeping it that way. Moreover, including a wider variety of perspectives would help the committee evaluate candidates in ways reflective of the university and its surrounding community.

And if not for that, Martin and Spisso should improve the search committee’s composition to at least appear as though they’re committed to a more diverse hiring process.

Doing more than what’s recommended, after all, is expected of those seeking excellence.

Q&A: Architect to speak at UCLA roots contemporary design in cultural history

Zhu Pei weaves traditional Chinese culture into architecture in an attempt to preserve the past, he said.

An architect based in China, Pei founded Studio Zhu-Pei in Beijing, envisioning projects such as the contemporary Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum, a spacious place for locals to gather. He also was commissioned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to design the Guggenheim Art Pavilion in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the Guggenheim Museum in Beijing. Pei will lecture at UCLA on Monday in Perloff Hall’s Decafe. The Daily Bruin spoke with Pei about his architectural style, inspiration and newest work.

Daily Bruin: How would you describe your specific architectural style?

Zhu Pei: I strongly believe that architecture is art but connected with a certain culture. I think … the terms “root” and “innovation” demonstrate my different approach. I want to rediscover the root of a specific culture or climate or condition and so on. Architecture is art – innovation always reminds me to recreate a new experience for architecture.

DB: Are there any current architectural trends that you draw inspiration from?

ZP: I don’t care about what other people are doing. I really want to develop by myself. I strongly believe architecture needs to learn from the past and nature at the same moment. The contemporary artistic approach is going to be very important for my work, so I really don’t care what is happening in architecture currently, but hopefully, innovation and creation of new architecture (will be an) important thing.

DB: What do you believe are common misconceptions about the art of architecture?

ZP: So most people consider the architecture as just a product, without the character or taste or culture. I think this doesn’t matter (to some cultures). For Chinese, most people really realize it’s character. So (when) they build the halls for themselves or they want to buy some property, they always care about the taste or character of architecture, but (when) they’re shopping for international stuff, they don’t care about the style. They just use and don’t care about the architecture.

DB: How do you think architecture shapes the sociopolitical and cultural landscape of China?

ZP: Architecture has always played a significant role to shape or transform the Chinese culture into the contemporary age. You know, this is the reason I always focus on some connection (between) the contemporary and the tradition. I always care about the mental root of the contemporary architecture associated with the local culture or people’s lifestyle. The archways provide the opportunity and space or social setting. If you brought some interesting social idea into the architecture, (then) people always love to visit … especially in China in the last 30 years … (because of) the urbanization. People realized they need a more social space – they need a more public space, like a culture, music or a place to communicate with each other, especially (to exchange) information. Or like social media, people realize they need a face to see. In China, it can be hard to find a more public space today. The people like to see a good (architectural) solution, a good urban idea to generate more public (spaces), instead of everything being isolated – divided into islands.

DB: What is your most recent architectural piece? Can you describe the piece and the process of creating it?

ZP: One of my projects, I believe, is very interesting in terms of the root and innovation. The product is called Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum. It is located in Jingdezhen, (China). For me, I want to rediscover the contemporary age. I want to rediscover the roots, to reflect on their culture, tradition and climate. If you go back 500 or 300 years ago, most Jingdezhen people (worked with a kiln on a daily basis). So this museum transports one into the topic space and not only creates a beautiful image of the city. I also want to take advantage of this museum to connect with the relic of imperial kilns surrounding (the) historical neighborhood. This museum starts to keep the public space centered. Even right now, it’s not complete yet but the local residents have started to visit, to walk around in this museum. This is a good example of how architecture is connected to deep roots, like the cultural past, while also creating new experiences.

Hammer installation explores expression of space, contemplates on rituals

Tectonic plates and underwater acoustics are inspirations for Jamilah Sabur’s artwork.

Sabur, a Miami-based artist, created a video installation inspired by geographic and oceanic data. Her work is currently on display at the Hammer Museum, and will be showcased until May 5. Entitled “Un chemin escarpe,” the work is an abstract representation of Sabur’s discoveries while learning about the geologic topics. The five-channel video installation includes animations and performances by Sabur, projected onto screens around the exhibit. She said the piece uses the data, along with ritualistic movements that replicate daily tasks, to invoke emotions in the viewer as they consider the interconnectedness of the physical world and philosophical concepts.

“For me, the installation was really a meditation on ways of navigating space,” Sabur said. “The fixed notion that we have of a place can be redefined.”

People often are too concerned with territories and borders, Sabur said, but geographic landscapes and oceans are not constricted by these human inventions. The word “escarpe” in the title of the show translates to the geologic term “escarpment,” which refers to the long steep slope at the edge of a plateau or fortress. Sabur said escarpments intrigue her because they evoke the sense of vertical space, on which this installment focuses. From measuring the movement of celestial bodies to studying the divisions in the planet’s crust, Sabur said vertical thinking encourages more transcendental thought than is required in everyday life, particularly about humanity’s relationship with the Earth.

“It reminds me that we’re just a mere speck in the continuum in the history of this planet,” Sabur said. “It just serves as a reminder that my relationship to this moment is a part of something much, much bigger than me.”

Assistant curator Erin Christovale said the installation challenged her to step out of her comfort zone. Prior to curating the exhibition, she was not accustomed to many aspects of Sabur’s research, such as reading papers on ocean studies and learning about landscapes most humans never physically encounter. She said it reminded her that humans are typically only concerned with what they can see, not tectonic plates or sound waves. She said Sabur’s focus on the things we can’t see is what creates a more expansive way of thinking.

“I feel what (Sabur is) interested in is, ‘We’re actually on a tectonic plate right now, what does that mean? We’re actually this landmass over an ocean, what does that mean?'” Christovale said. “(She’s) really thinking in this expansive way, where we’re standing in this world, and what does that mean?”

Similarly, Nina Johnson, the gallery owner who represents Sabur in Miami, said water usually is discussed in terms of its existence as a space for travel, or as a territorial division. Sabur, however, wants to look past the human perspective and appreciate the fact that the underwater realm contains only the natural environment – an important influence on human culture and history.

Johnson said that the thematic narrative of Sabur’s work doesn’t obstruct the art itself. The audience doesn’t walk away from the installation having learned something new about geography, she said. The abstract piece is instead supposed to develop an emotional reaction in viewers, she said – nostalgia, and a sense of the world’s deconstruction.

Incorporating ritualistic practices into the performance aspects of the work is part of mesmerizing the audience, Sabur said. She performs in this video installment, mostly in front of a green screen, which has been converted into natural landscapes and scientific images. With dancing on sound waves and mimicking the actions of cricket players, the performance uses repetitive motions Sabur equates to daily rituals.

“Ritual is for me very much about embodied cognition. I talk about ritual a lot, really as something that’s of the everyday,” Sabur said. “But in the act of performing something repetitively, it definitely produces a sort of state that I sink into.”

Every aspect of “Un chemin escarpe” is new, Sabur said, although it covers many of the same ideas as her previous works. The repetitive movements of her performance and the trancelike state of the audience contribute to her metaphysical aesthetic, which Johnson said she keeps consistent, regardless of the medium she is working in. Her interest in the geographic data of the Caribbean is not temporary and has been a large influence for her, both philosophically and artistically.

“It forces me to think of the fullness of a shape, or the fullness of a form, so it immediately evokes the sense of vertical space … It really is about thinking of the unseen,” Sabur said.

Women’s basketball fights back in triple overtime to secure win over Wildcats

For the second time this season, Michaela Onyenwere’s putback kept the Bruins alive.

“There were a lot of tips, it wasn’t just me,” said the sophomore forward. “But I kind of just saw where the ball was going, and then once I got it in my hands … it was a shot I had to make.”

With UCLA women’s basketball (11-9, 4-4 Pac-12) down 61-59 during regulation, Onyenwere’s offensive rebound and layup with three seconds left forced overtime, and eventually allowed the Bruins to grind out a 98-93 triple-overtime victory over Arizona (14-6, 4-5).

Three Bruins played over 50 minutes in the program’s first-ever triple-overtime contest – a back-and-forth game with 24 lead changes that lasted nearly three hours.

“You have to will yourself to get your body to do things, because physically, everybody was exhausted,” said coach Cori Close. “It was the team that could collectively and mentally focus through fatigue.”

UCLA took an early six-point lead in the second quarter when senior guard Japreece Dean drained her first 3-pointer of the afternoon, but the Wildcats outrebounded the Bruins 26-18 in the half and took a 33-30 lead at the break.

“It was just super uncharacteristic of our team,” Onyenwere said. “We knew that we’re a team that prides ourselves on defense and prides ourselves on rebounds.”

Onyenwere finished with 28 points – including another layup with 16 seconds left in the first extra period that eventually forced a second overtime. The forward also added 13 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season.

The 55-minute game included 60 combined fouls with five players fouling out. But unlike in UCLA’s overtime loss to Kentucky on Nov. 23 – when the Bruins struggled from the free throw line – UCLA shot 85 percent from the charity stripe in the overtime periods and went 28-of-35 in the game.

Close said that because the Bruins shot just 35 percent from the field, rebounding and free throws won them the game.

“We lost that overtime game (to Kentucky) because of free throws and rebounding,” Close said. “So I think to show our growth, … I’m really proud of the guts it took to control those things.”

UCLA – which is averaging a conference-best 17.9 offensive rebounds per game – pulled down 27 offensive boards, which gave the Bruins a second-chance opportunity on nearly half of its field goal attempts.

Dean, although only 5-foot-6, leapt for an offensive rebound and earned an and-one floater in the third overtime to give the Bruins a 90-89 advantage – a lead they held for the remainder of the game with free throws.

Dean finished with a career-high 26 points, seven rebounds and went a 9-of-9 from the free throw line. Redshirt senior forward Lajahna Drummer logged 18 points and a career-high 17 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season.

The Bruins completed their first two-game Pac-12 weekend sweep of the season, and sit right behind the conference’s five ranked teams at sixth place.

“(This weekend) was super important,” Dean said. “A lot of teams are beating other teams, and we just have to keep winning and stringing them together.”

Men’s tennis defeats Indiana, San Diego, qualifies for ITA National Championships

After winning the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, the Bruins have qualified for the ITA National Indoor Championships.

Playing in both the No. 1 singles and doubles spot, senior Maxime Cressy led No. 7 UCLA men’s tennis (2-0) to 4-1 victories over both Indiana and the University of San Diego on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Cressy’s serve was not broken the entire weekend.

“My serve is my weapon,” Cressy said. “It enables me to win at least one game out of every two. I just need to break my opponent once, and in my mind, the set is over. On good days, I don’t see myself being broken.”

With their wins, the Bruins secured a spot in the ITA National Division I Team Indoor Championship in mid-February.

Cressy’s serving on Friday against Indiana led him and his partner – sophomore Keegan Smith – to a 6-3 victory over their first opponents, Patrick Fletchall and Brandon Lam.

The duo’s win on the No. 1 doubles court helped secure the doubles point for the Bruins, since the No. 2 team of junior Ben Goldberg and freshman Govind Nanda fell to their opponents by a score of 6-4. Nanda’s serve was broken twice that match.

“It’s tough when you have two smaller guys playing together to hold serve,” Nanda said. “We don’t get as many free points. We’ll find it eventually, but we have to work hard for all of our points.”

The Bruins’ top courts led the team to victory in singles. Cressy defeated Antonio Cembellin 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Nanda, who played in the No. 3 spot, tallied his first dual-match win, triumphing over Brandon Lam, 6-4, 6-2.

Sophomore Connor Hance was forced to retire from his singles match due to a foot injury. Coach Billy Martin said he is hopeful that more details on the severity of Hance’s injury will be available Monday.

Smith clinched the victory for UCLA with a win over Indiana’s Bennett Crane, 7-6 (2), 6-2.

On Saturday, UCLA squared off against San Diego, who was fresh off a 4-0 sweep of unranked Ole Miss on Friday.

The Bruins were unable to able to clinch the doubles point and fell behind San Diego 1-0 early on. The team of Cressy and Smith was the only doubles team to emerge victorious for the Bruins, defeating Nico Borter and Gui Osorio, 6-3.

Martin said that psychologically, even losing one point from doubles can be devastating.

“Against the top teams, it’s hard enough to win even three singles matches, much less four,” Martin said. “I was extremely proud to get this win after dropping the doubles point, because we have such a young team and you just don’t know how they’re going to react after losing the doubles point.”

Freshman Mathew Tsolakyan tied the match score 1-1 with his victory over San Diego’s Guus Koevermans, 6-3, 6-3.

“(Tsolakyan) has really stepped up and done a good job, not just at No. 6 singles but also No. 5,” Martin said. “Out at Sherwood, he gave me lots of confidence with two great wins, and he showed me he really deserved that last lineup spot.”

The top court of the Bruins once again led their team to the win. Nanda finished the weekend undefeated in singles with a win against Borter. Meanwhile, Cressy serve-and-volleyed his way to a 6-2, 6-4 victory on the No. 1 singles court.

“When I serve-and-volley, I take advantage of my speed,” Cressy said. “My serves bounce high so most guys return high balls that I can volley. When I’m at the net, their only option is to either lob or hit a passing shot, and that’s not high-percentage tennis for them.”

Smith mounted a comeback on the No. 2 singles court after trailing 0-3 in the first set, and his 6-4, 6-4 victory won the match for the Bruins.

With the first of the dual matches under their its belt, UCLA will play a doubleheader at home against BYU and Saint Mary’s on Saturday.

USAC recap – Jan. 22

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff 417 and are open to all students. Watch a livestream of the meetings on the USAC Live! channel on YouTube.

Public Comment

Students expressed concerns about election board nominees. Some students said they were upset their organizations were not contacted about the position openings, while others said they were concerned about the nominees’ affiliation with the Community Programs Office.
One student said she was excited about the diversity of the election board nominees.
Several student organizations asked the council to allocate surplus funding to their events and programs.
CALPIRG introduced its campaigns for this quarter, including 100 percent renewable transportation and affordable textbooks.

Agenda

The council voted to set aside a total of $130,000 from the surplus budget to USAC and $100,000 to student groups.
The council voted to approve three of five election board nominees.

The council appointed Kyana Shajari as investigations director.
The council appointed Paja Thao as publicity director.
The council appointed Freddy Ramos as endorsements director.
The vice chair, external affairs director and finance director positions are still unfilled.

The council allocated $12,850 from the contingency programming fund to non-USAC groups.
The council allocated $3,415.32 from the supplemental fund for service to non-USAC groups.
The council appointed Jae Ho Cho, a third-year political science student, to the UCLA Committee on Disability.
The council appointed Jimmy Zhou, a third-year biology student, to the Student Activities Center Board of Governors.
The council voted to approve a resolution to honor Dawn Mabalon, a UCLA alumna who co-founded the Little Manila Foundation.

Reports

Office reports were tabled until next week, as the meeting went on until 2 a.m.

Men’s volleyball secures second victory over UCSD with contributions across team

The Bruins began their second road trip of the year with a win.

No. 7 UCLA men’s volleyball (6-2) defeated UC San Diego (3-5) by a score of 3-1 on Friday in La Jolla, California, in the teams’ second matchup of the season.

Redshirt junior opposite Brandon Rattray aided the Bruins’ offense in his return to his San Diego roots by posting a career-high 21 kills, while only committing two attacking errors. Rattray also hit for .576, despite entering Friday’s match with a mark of .282 through the first seven matches of the season.

Rattray said he was able to minimize errors by tweaking his offensive approach in Friday’s match.

“Everyone says that I only have one speed, and that’s ‘hit the ball as hard as possible,’ and it’s been true for the past couple of matches,” Rattray said. “Tonight, I kinda changed the game plan, as opposed to detonating every single ball, more placing the ball where I want it to be and putting it in the spots where they weren’t.”

Redshirt junior middle blocker Jonah Kay, another San Diego native, entered play for the first time in his career midway through the third set. Senior setter Micah Ma’a said that while Kay was limited on the stat sheet, his presence was crucial for the Bruins on the road.

“When you get people in there that are from (San Diego), you get the crowd on your side a little bit,” Ma’a said. “We were in a hostile environment, and because of (Kay) I think that the Bruin fans that were there got a lot more excited, and that changes the momentum lightning quick.”

The first set of the match was the only one that the Bruins dropped.

The two teams were knotted up at 10-9 in favor of UCSD, but a 5-1 run by the Tritons led to an eventual 25-20 victory in the first set.

UCSD’s outside hitter Wyatt Harrison and middle blocker Vlad Pesic – who combined for a total of three kills when UCSD traveled to UCLA earlier this year – helped the Tritons snatch the early lead by tallying five and three kills in the first set, respectively.

UCLA coach John Speraw chose to make a substitution following the first set loss, removing redshirt junior middle blocker Matt Younggren for sophomore middle blocker Grant Maleski.

“I usually don’t sub quite that quickly, but obviously we lost that set and we needed to pick things up,” Speraw said. “(Maleski) came in, and I thought he did a decent job.”

The Bruins won the next two sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-15 following the substitution. The move also played in UCLA’s favor with UCSD leading 21-19 in the fourth set, with junior outside hitter Austin Matautia receiving the serve and passing the ball to Ma’a.

Ma’a – with the team’s only other starting senior, outside hitter Dylan Missry, to his front and its highest scorer, Rattray, to his back – opted to set the ball to Maleski for the sophomore’s third and final kill of the night.

The pass to Maleski set in motion a 6-2 Bruin run that would enable UCLA to take the fourth set and the match.

Ma’a said that his decision to go to Maleski in that situation was a sign UCLA has confidence all of its players can produce in any given moment.

“It’s important to have trust in your guys,” Ma’a said. “It doesn’t really matter what the score is, if we think that they have the best opportunity to score, then we’re willing to go to anyone on the team.”

The Bruins will travel to Illinois to play No. 5 Loyola Chicago and No. 9 Lewis on Thursday and Friday, respectively.