Federal report urges colleges to better advertise food assistance programs

This post was updated Jan. 24 at 3:36 p.m.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that federal agencies better publicize food assistance programs in order to combat food insecurity on college campuses in a report released Jan. 9.

The GAO reported that 3.3 million college students in the U.S. in 2016 were eligible to receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a federal food assistance program. However, it reported less than half said they participated.

Kaitlin Reid, a health educator and dietician at the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, said she believes the government can have a significant impact on food insecurity on college campuses by expanding federal financial aid packages to cover food expenses. She said she believes this could help college students avoid food insecurity.

“One of the largest issues is that the financial aid package hasn’t been increased to match the demand of what students are needing to spend, in terms of books, and room and board, and food,” she said. “I think that’s something that’s going to come from the government, not necessarily UCLA.”

Shelly Dieu, leader of the UCLA CalFresh Initiative and fourth-year geography/environmental studies student, said she believes increasing the government’s awareness of students’ issues could help combat food insecurity at universities.

“We’ve been working with LA County, like the Department of Public Social Services, for training their social workers to just really be aware of the student population, … just making them aware of how financial aid packages work, like how most students can be eligible,” she said. “(We want to change) the face of someone who’s receiving government benefits – it’s just understanding that college students are also part of this population.”

There are several resources at UCLA available to students experiencing food insecurity, such as CalFresh and Swipe Out Hunger. Nevertheless, students and administrators believe the university can improve how it publicizes these services to the student body.

The University of California Office of the President Global Food Initiative estimated that in 2016 less than 10 percent of UC students eligible for SNAP, known as CalFresh in California, were enrolled in the program. It also reported that food insecurity across the UC system disproportionately affects low-income, underrepresented minority and LGBTQ students.

According to the 2018 UC Undergraduate Experience Survey, about 37 percent of UCLA students experienced some level of food insecurity, including 20 percent who experienced “very low” food security. The UC defined “very low” food security as experiencing “disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.”

CalFresh is an organization that works to combat food insecurity on campus by facilitating interactions between social workers and students in order to enroll students in CalFresh. Students who meet eligibility requirements, such as those who work an average of 20 hours a week or receive a Cal Grant, can enroll in CalFresh. The program gives students a stipend of up to $192 per month to spend on food, Dieu said. She added CalFresh meets with 300 to 400 students each quarter to enroll in the program.

Lea Le Rouzo, UCLA CalFresh outreach intern and a third-year environmental science student, said she believes the program should have a more permanent position on campus in order to enroll more students in CalFresh.

“I think UCLA could benefit from having someone more permanent working here for CalFresh, just as part of their jobs, so it’s not student-run,” she said. “Student-run organizations always have the possibility of running out, or, as powers get passed down, you (lose) consistency.”

Devon Graves, a UC student regent who helped create the UC Board of Regents Special Committee on Basic Needs, has advocated for allocating funding in the UC’s budget for basic needs services on campuses. He said he believes campuses should establish strong relationships with county officials in order to increase CalFresh enrollment among students.

“When it comes to CalFresh, it’s from the county, so it’s important that UC campuses have strong relationships with county offices to ensure good communication with CalFresh services,” he said.

Swipe Out Hunger is a student organization that collects students’ unused meal plan swipes at the end of each quarter to donate to students in need as meal vouchers, as well as unsold produce from local farmers’ markets to give to students.

Hannah Brenchley, senior adviser for Swipe Out Hunger and a fourth-year political science student, said they collect between 30,000 and 40,000 swipes per year, almost all of which are used by students.

Brenchley added she believes UCLA can combat food insecurity by publicizing food assistance resources during freshman orientation to increase awareness. She said the group has reached out to new student advisers to tell incoming students about these resources.

“I wish that CalFresh eligibility was a part of your intake as a freshman,” she said. “When you come to school, they’re like, ‘(If) you got a student job or if you meet these requirements, then you can get this much money and food a month.’”

Brenchley added she believes UCLA could also combat food insecurity by offering more inexpensive food options on campus.

Dieu said she believes some students are deterred from signing up for CalFresh because it is a government program.

Graves and Brenchley said increasing awareness of food insecurity and resources available could help normalize the issue on campus and alleviate its stigma.

“(Food insecurity is) a topic that is growing but is definitely something we need to have increasing conversations about,” Graves said. “It’s something that students face, and there are resources available to help students who are impacted.”

Brenchley said she believes many recipients of food assistance heard about such resources by word-of-mouth, instead of from the university. She said the university should better publicize its resources in order to get more students enrolled.

Le Rouzo said CalFresh has worked with the UCLA Financial Aid and Scholarships Office to send emails to students about CalFresh and its eligibility requirements. She said she hopes to continue to spread awareness of CalFresh and to destigmatize the issue of food insecurity on campus.

“CalFresh should be a resource that you should take advantage of if you can, because it’s a waste not to, because if the money isn’t used, then it just goes to waste,” she said. “This is a resource that is made for you, and it should be taken advantage of.”

Women-only ride-hailing services not on the map for the future, report says

A UCLA researcher said women-only ride-hailing services may make ride-hailing safer for women, but may not be economically feasible.

Christopher Tang, a distinguished professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, co-authored a report this month discussing the political and economic concerns associated with women-only ride-hailing services. The report came in the wake of several sexual assaults and murders of female passengers committed by drivers of ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft.

“Over the last three years, there were a series of reports about female riders … who were sexually assaulted, raped or murdered by male drivers,” the report said.

Juka Kim, a fourth-year neuroscience student, said she has at times felt unsafe in an Uber. Once, she said, she was taking an Uber during the daytime with a male driver who she said appeared to be around 50 years old. Not only did he comment on why she did not want to sit in the passenger seat beside him, but he also fixated on her Japanese heritage, claiming that she was not like other Japanese girls, Kim said.

She said she thinks a women-only ride-hailing service may be positive and would mimic women-only train cars that exist in Japan and other countries.

Uber, Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing and other ride-hailing giants have pledged to increase their safety measures in response to a widespread outcry that such companies are too lax in their background checks and safety policies, the report said.

One alternative many ride-hailing companies have considered is gender-specific rider and driver options, Tang’s report said. In addition, it said entrepreneurs have launched a number of women-only ride-hailing startups, including SheTaxis and Safr in the United States, in an attempt to provide services that exclude male drivers and riders.

“The first motivation (for women-only ride-hailing services) is safety, … then accessibility. Some women may not be able to get rides from men … (especially) in some other cultures, like (some) Muslim cultures, where men usually do not interact with women in a social setting,” Tang said.

He added not only do such services ensure a higher standard of safety and accessibility for the female passengers who request them, but they may benefit the economy by increasing job opportunities for women.

“From an economic standpoint, (such services) may create more job opportunities for female drivers, particularly for women workers in developing countries where at least they have a niche,” Tang said.

However, currently the demand for these services outstrips the supply, Tang said. He added more passengers seek out women-only ride-hailing services than there are female drivers available to fulfill that demand.

“In many countries, women are only a few percent to 20 percent of all drivers,” Tang said.

He said he thinks companies offering such services should attract more female drivers to the market by providing separate reward and pricing mechanisms for female drivers.

For example, he said he thinks female drivers should be paid more than male drivers. He said he thinks such measures are necessary because unless these services charge higher prices than usual, female drivers may have reduced earnings, and female passengers may have to wait longer to be picked up.

Tang said it’s possible male drivers will feel like these incentives provided to bolster the women-only ride-hailing market are unfair and discriminatory, but added he thinks they are necessary to encourage more female drivers.

“In some cases there’s no choice,” Tang said. “Men will understand.”

Tang added he thinks other companies or the government should subsidize these services to enable them to thrive.

He said he also thinks that in addition to women-only services, existing services like Uber and Lyft can help remedy safety concerns by providing more information to passengers and drivers about who they will be riding with.

Tang said he thinks Uber and other ride-hailing services should allow both riders and drivers to submit comments that would provide other users with general indexes about how courteous and safe the other party was, instead of providing merely a numerical rating.

He said he realizes people may have worries about discrimination, but thinks that providing more open information about drivers and riders may help decrease bias.

For example, he said he thinks that drivers or riders who might otherwise face discrimination for their race, gender, religion or other aspects of their identity visible in their name, photograph or other indicators might be less exposed to bias once users are able to comment on the positive experiences they had with a certain individual.

Lucero Herrera, a researcher at the UCLA Labor Center and a co-author of a 2018 report that revealed some of the poor work conditions that Uber and Lyft drivers face, said she thinks women-only ride-hailing services, while commendable in their attempts to address safety concerns, may face legal challenges.

She said she thinks such services could be perceived to be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. By introducing the criteria of gender to enable driver and passenger selection, these services could be perpetuating a form of gender-based discrimination, she said.

Despite these concerns, Herrera said she thinks that these services are addressing safety issues that affect the vast majority of female drivers.

“Currently, the majority of women drivers only drive during the day, preferring the morning, and avoid drunk or under-the-influence riders,” she said.

Apart from women-only ride-hailing services, Herrera thinks existing services should implement more rigorous safety standards, including stricter background checks for drivers. Drivers often do not have enough information to cancel a ride and are wary of penalties they might incur if they do so, she said.

“It’s clear that these companies have to do better by their employees, for the benefit of their safety and for the safety of their riders,” Herrera said.

USAC scholarship attempts to tackle textbook affordability issues

Alex Saucedo said he sometimes had to choose between being able to purchase the required textbooks for his classes and having food to eat for the day.

Saucedo, a third-year sociology student, is one of the recipients of a textbook scholarship created by the Undergraduate Students Association Council Financial Supports Commission. The office created the scholarship to address the issue of textbook affordability on campus.

Sui Shan Cheng, the daily affordability director for the FSC and a third-year economics student, said the problem of textbook affordability is often overlooked due to other larger expenses.

“As a student, I know the burden of textbook costs,” Cheng said. “With every quarter, professors are demanding more and more – even new editions – and that is a concern that is often overlooked because we also have additional expenses as students.”

Forty recipients were chosen to receive $50 gift cards to the UCLA textbook store out of over 130 applicants.

The commission decided on $50 as the award amount because it allowed them to provide a meaningful subsidy to each student selected but also give scholarships to as many students as possible, said Jay Manzano, Financial Supports commissioner and a fourth-year Chicana and Chicano studies student.

Although the scholarship is only $50 per person, it makes a difference, said Saucedo. Saucedo said he borrowed textbooks from the library or from a friend last quarter instead of purchasing them so he could afford other necessities like food.

“I’m always risking it. I have to ask myself: ‘Do I force myself to not spend money on food today?’” Saucedo said. “With that $50, I am able to buy myself something to eat.”

Saucedo hopes the scholarship will continue in future years.

“I think it’s beneficial for anyone who receives this scholarship because I know that they’re just like me,” he said.

Recipients were chosen according to a three-tier system, Manzano said.

Applicants were asked to mark their family’s expected financial contribution, which is the amount a family is expected to pay for their student’s college education.

The first tier is comprised of students with an EFC of zero, the second tier is students with an EFC of over 1000 and the third tier is students who did not mark their EFC.

Ninety percent of recipients had an EFC of zero dollars, Manzano said.

“We wanted to ensure we were giving the scholarship to students who were most in need,” he said.

Scholarship recipient Sharlene Lim, a fourth-year psychobiology student, said although the scholarship does not cover the full cost of her textbooks for the quarter, $50 is a fair amount because it helps pay for at least a portion of the cost, but still allows for as many students as possible to receive aid.

“I have to pay tuition, I have to pay for rent,” Lim said. “Being able to get the scholarship, I felt a little weight off my shoulders.”

Manzano said the FSC created the scholarship based on a theory that social change is achieved by providing tangible resources and services in addition to advocacy.

“If you want to challenge the issue of textbook affordability in a policy-oriented way, that might take a very long time,” Manzano said. “And while you’re working on that, students are still struggling to pay for textbooks. So to supplement that, we wanted to provide resources for a more immediate relief for students.”

The commission plans on granting another scholarship in spring quarter, Manzano said. He said he is unsure if the spring scholarship will continue to provide gift cards for textbooks or instead provide entrance exam prep books for the MCAT and LSAT.

Although the scholarship has benefitted students, the commission recognizes there are many more students who need financial support on campus, Manzano added.

“We don’t ever want to report that we’re ending college financial insecurity but what we do hope to do is provide students with at least some resources,” he said.

Film archive series to shed light on Hollywood’s unrecognized female directors

This post was updated Jan. 26 at 7:08 a.m.

From the mid-1930s until the mid-1960s, there were only two female directors in Hollywood: Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino.

But according to author Maya Montañez Smukler, this trend shifted in the 1970s. The UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hugh M. Hefner Classic American Film Program will present “Liberating Hollywood,” a film archive series running from Friday, Jan. 25 to Saturday, Feb. 23 at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum. The series, based on the book “Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors and the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema” written by Smukler, illustrates the ways female directors challenged institutionalized sexism in the film industry. Smukler worked alongside film programmer KJ Relth to curate the series, which will host eight film screenings throughout its duration and feature Q&A’s with four of the women whose work will be showcased.

“Hollywood in the 1970s was a fascinating time. The film industry was trying to adjust to the nation’s social upheaval,” Smukler said. “The feminist movement really becomes the leading sociopolitical movement of the ’70s.”

The intersection of Vietnam War society, the rise of the counterculture and the second-wave feminist movement underscored the industry’s need for change. Budding filmmakers, such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, spearheaded the wave of young voices emerging in Hollywood. When researching the time period, however, Smukler said she discovered there was a stark injustice that needed to be addressed. These aforementioned directors, among others, were rising to power, yet women were consistently getting left behind, she said.

“There was this notion that anyone who’s young and determined can make a movie. And in many ways that’s true. But the thing that I started realizing was that it was true for white men who wanted to direct films,” Smukler said. “Feminism challenged the film industry, but there was still this cultural belief system that was rooted in racism and sexism.”

Even though the industry was evolving to accept work from young creators, women were still overshadowed, as evident in the dominance of white male directors in top-grossing films at the time, such as Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Smukler said. Women were involved in an industry that allowed for very little mobility. The series’ objective is to challenge the narrative that female films fall into their own separate category, she said.

“Hollywood did not feel comfortable with women having creative and financial power,” Smukler said. “In the ‘70s, that starts to break open. There’s this generation of women emboldened by the social justice movement.”

The influx of new voices in Hollywood, coupled with the rising second-wave feminist movement, propelled women to take matters into their own hands, Smukler said. There were an estimated 16 female feature directors in the 1970s. Although women still struggled for acceptance and recognition in the industry, they began taking on these coveted leadership roles themselves, she said. The main premise of the archive series is to highlight female-directed films that audiences rarely get to see. Because so many of these women’s films went unrecognized, it is important for them to be able to tell their side of the story, Relth said.

One of the women who will be sharing her personal story is director Barbara Peeters. Two of her films, “Bury Me an Angel” and “Summer School Teachers,” will be screened at the event. Peeters said she faced discrimination in the industry every day.

“I was an oddity,” she said. “I had several men come up to me and say, ‘What do you mean you’re directing?'”

Director Lynne Littman will also be sharing her story at a Q&A. Her films “Number Our Days” and “Testament” will be screened as part of the series. In the world of public television, where Littman got her start, there wasn’t the same kind of sexism that existed in the commercial film and television industry, she said.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but in retrospect I was very fortunate,” Littman said. “I was brought up with a certain amount of courage.”

Smukler believes the explosion of independent platforms and streaming services will allow previously suppressed voices a chance to be heard, as well as incentivize the industry to embrace inclusion. The activism displayed in the 1970s is what’s driving the film industry’s current initiatives, specifically the #MeToo, #OscarsSoWhite, 50/50 by 2020 and Time’s Up movements, Smukler said.

“What was happening in the ‘70s is the legacy, and that’s something we wanted to celebrate with this film series. “Women have been making movies for a long time in Hollywood,” Smukler said. “And so, historically, this series gives us a glimpse of that.”

Cold War play focuses on relevant political issues via character juxtaposition

A discussion between a Russian and an American provides a glimpse into the Cold War era.

“A Walk in the Woods”premiers at the James Bridges Theater at UCLA on Friday, featuring a cast of just two actors. Director Cameron Watson said the play highlights the art of diplomacy as it follows Russian diplomat Andrey Botvinnik and American arms negotiator John Honeyman while they discuss the politics of the Cold War. Though the play originally debuted during the Cold War, its focus on overcoming political boundaries still resonates today, Watson said.

“It’s kind of eerie how (the play) resonates in similar ways that it did at that time, but in completely different ways in the time that we live in today,” Watson said. “The grander themes of peace and the bigger picture of the (play) – of two men talking as men but handling giant world issues in peace negotiations and harmony or disharmony on the planet – is even a louder bell today than it might have even been then.”

The show’s producer Susan Loewenberg said the juxtaposition between the Russian and American characters is prominent. Honeyman is younger, less experienced, more idealistic and has not experienced as many disappointments as the older Botvinnik, Loewenberg said. The characters find common bonds despite their national differences and work through the complications of diplomacy, she said.

“That’s what you’re seeing: youth versus age, experience versus inexperience, all played out in this dialogue between these two people,” Loewenberg said. “And without all of the sort of accouterment that actors are used to working with, it is quite an interesting and thrilling experience.”

By honing in on two characters who seem completely different at the beginning of the play, Watson said the production is not strictly political. Instead, it reveals what Botvinnik and Honeyman think about regarding world peace, trying to do good and protecting their own countries, Watson said. The characters’ differing Soviet versus American alignments complicate their relationship, Watson said, but they are able to bond personally in discussing peace negotiations while their countries battle.

“The beauty of it is that what you have in this play is this one relationship,” Watson said. “There’s not a relationship with anyone else on stage, you don’t have supporting characters that come in and kind of support other ideas or other storylines.”

The characters’ discussion reveals subtleties about their personalities, Loewenberg said. “A Walk in the Woods” breaks down the stereotype of Russians being violent and cold-hearted, she said, and provides insight into the realism of Botvinnik’s views on the difficulty of finding world peace. Although the characters find an agreement among themselves, Loewenberg said, their diplomacy is limited by the power of political leaders who make the final decisions. Reaching peace is difficult when political leaders prevent people from interacting on a personal level like the diplomats in this production do, he said.

Playwright Lee Blessing said audiences will be surprised when they find the Russian character is more enticing than the American. He is charming and more well-rounded than the American, who takes longer to grow on audiences because he has less diplomatic experience, Blessing said. Seeing Botvinnik interact in a more personal way humanizes him and makes audiences understand him on a more three-dimensional level, he said.
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“I grew up during the Cold War, and Russians were thought of as enemies; they’re simply thought of as untrustworthy people,” Blessing said. “And then I traveled there in the 1970s, and I met a few people, realized that … was too much to stereotype.”

Blessing said the reality of the threat of nuclear warfare is one thing that connects the Cold War time period to where we are today. The introduction of such harsh weapons complicated the way diplomacy and warfare work, Blessing said, and “A Walk in the Woods” aims to start a conversation around that.

“The issue is how can we change as human beings in order to (eliminate) the threat,” Blessing said. “What can we do to become better humans to keep us all secure.”

Photographer to speak on his images of traditional New Orleans parades

A staple tradition in the streets of New Orleans will parade its way to UCLA.

On Saturday, Pableaux Johnson, a Louisiana native who photographs second line parades in New Orleans, will be conducting an artist talk at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. At the event, he will lead attendees through an exhibition featuring his photographs of second line parades and speak about the culture he documents. The parades are put on by social clubs each week, a tradition that has been a signature of New Orleans since the 1800s. Johnson approaches photographing the parades as a means of intimately documenting an aspect of New Orleans culture that isn’t found anywhere else, he said.

“You’re lucky enough to put your eyes toward what’s going on in your city and how these traditions are changing and evolving on your watch,” Johnson said.

Social aid and pleasure clubs, or simply social clubs, in New Orleans began as a form of quasi-insurance. During the 1800s, much like an Irish-American club in Boston, African-American communities would pool funds together and lend out money when a member of the community was in need, said Patrick Polk, a world arts and cultures lecturer and one of the curators for the exhibition. These organizations thus historically became rooted in a community-based, philanthropic identity that has survived to the present day.

Today, there are 60 to 80 social clubs in New Orleans, Johnson said. On 40 Sundays of the year, a different club puts on a second line parade full of grand displays of fashion, music and culture. Members of the club dress in bright and intricate costumes and show off elaborate dances, all to the tune of New Orleans brass bands, which combines many elements of African-American music since the turn of the century, including jazz, hip-hop and funk. Johnson documents these bright and exuberant moments with his camera, preserving the traditions found in the parades, Polk said.

“During your Sunday you put on astonishing finery, you are the star of the show,” Johnson said. “You basically have a parade that is a dance floor that migrates through your neighborhood and different parts of the city that are important to your club.”

Johnson’s photographs are so intimate and personal that viewers can see the excitement in the dancers’ eyes and the sweat on their faces, Polk said. The photos are designed to highlight the cultural elements of New Orleans. In one photo, aimed at drawing attention to the prominent Atlantic-African culture of the city, a man in light orange and electric blue holding a matching sign that reads “Sittin on top of da world” is seen leading a group of excited marchers through the crowded streets. Johnson’s work demonstrates a clear sense of identity that manifests in the intimacy found in his photos, Polk said, which he thinks is important to those walking and dancing in the parades and who wish to be seen.

“There’s a choreography to his engagement with the people,” Polk said. “And the outcome of it is there’s very beautiful, intimate images of folks at moments of happiness and pleasure and pride.”

Another important aspect to the second line parades is that they are open to everyone. While they are planned and executed by the African-American social clubs, anybody in New Orleans is free to watch the parade, and even join in, said Action Jackson, a DJ for the New Orleans radio station WWOZ. They are expressions of culture everyone can participate in, including Johnson himself, who walks among the paraders in order to accurately capture on film the aura of the parades.

“It don’t matter what color you is, it don’t matter how you dance, if you got the spirit just come on out there and have a great time,” Jackson said.

Johnson tries to capture what it feels like to be in the midst of a parade by actively participating in it while he shoots. He said he tries to capture an experience in the frenetic, enveloping kinetic environment in a still frame by paying close attention to small movements and details. Johnson said capturing the movements and rhythm of the second line parades is like photographing an NBA playoff game – he must capture the parade’s emotion and passion.

One of the most important things Johnson does in his work, Polk said, is returning photographs he’s taken of the parades to their respective clubs. In doing so, Johnson allows them to have access to their own personal histories. Johnson said he feels his art is always in progress, always developing along the social clubs and moving like a parade.

“It is an ongoing body of work that shows this group of people who participate in this thing just how wonderful and beautiful what they do is,” Johnson said.

UCLA must establish multilingual writing center to support diverse student body

Is a school really committed to student-body diversity if it does not support diverse languages?

UCLA seems reluctant to answer that question.

Though the university has an 11.8 percent international student body and boasts thousands of classes in foreign languages, it does not have a multilingual writing center where tutors can help students develop their academic writing in a range of languages.

Students and professors have been calling for this resource for years. Without editing support, multilingual students don’t feel comfortable building their writing skills and confidence necessary to excel on campus and in the job market.

Nely Rodriguez-Piadade, a fourth-year Spanish and Chicana and Chicano studies student, said she hasn’t been able to get enough help with her Spanish writing at UCLA.

Rodriguez-Piadade is a native speaker of Spanish, born in Pueblo, Mexico, who immigrated here with her family while she was in elementary school. Because she attended school in America, she never got a chance to develop her academic Spanish.

“I don’t know if what I write is what a Spanish-speaking academic would write,” Rodriguez-Piadade said. “I don’t know if my paper flows, if the words I am using make sense. … I never know if I am using (academic words) correctly.”

It is imperative that UCLA helps students build their proficiency in foreign languages. If UCLA doesn’t help its students improve as writers, it limits their ability to communicate with larger, more established audiences.

Rodriguez-Piadade, for example, is interested in pursuing a career as a translator, perhaps between the federal government and her community. But she feels unprepared to pursue jobs requiring technical writing and interpretation due to the lack of UCLA’s support for Spanish writing.

“I need to be able to speak every level of Spanish and English,” Rodriguez-Piadade said. “If you can’t go between these registers, then you get lost in the conversation.”

Rodriguez-Piadade isn’t the only multilingual student feeling lost in the conversation. Undergraduates within the Spanish and Portuguese department circulated a petition last year to expand writing resources.

Instructors also feel this is a problem. While working as a teaching assistant, Laura Muñoz, a doctoral candidate in the department, realized her students didn’t have sufficient writing resources. Muñoz was shocked UCLA didn’t offer this support, since she had worked in UC Riverside’s multilingual writing center as an undergraduate.

She responded to discussions with her students by organizing the Graduate Outreach Advising Link within the Spanish and Portuguese department to help undergraduates grow academically and professionally. The GOAL program has two graduate student mentors who each serve six undergraduate mentees.

Muñoz said if students do not develop writing fundamentals like grammar and syntax, the quality of their content will be ignored.

“If you are here to get an education in a specific field, you shouldn’t leave this institution without the skills required to be successful in that field,” Muñoz said.

Muñoz is also one of the members of the Spanish and Portuguese department who engaged the Undergraduate Writing Center in discussions last spring about expanding multilingual writing resources.

UWC shared these discussions with David Schaberg, dean of the humanities department, in a proposal advocating for multilingual tutors. But at the time, the center lacked the money and space to support tutors in foreign languages.

Now, UWC has worked with the physical sciences department to expand its room access. This means the only thing between Bruins and a multilingual writing center is money. According to the UWC’s proposal, adding 18 hours of multilingual graduate student tutorship a week would cost between $10,000 and $14,000 per year.

That’s a wildly affordable plan. Schaberg, however, hasn’t taken any initiative on the proposal.

If the university supports this resource, Christine Holten, director of the UWC, hopes to work with the Center for World Languages to develop an effective and efficient multilingual writing center – limiting pressure on graduates and undergraduates in foreign languages to provide their own support systems.

Holten said multilingual tutors are necessary to support second language acquisition because they facilitate rehearsal and provide feedback. Unlike grading comments, tutors provide feedback in real time which promotes an interactive and empowering learning process.

“A writing center is more than a grammar service station,” Holten said. “We can be a place where students are active participants in their own improvement.”

Those who argue against devoting resources to support multilingualism on campus fail to understand the university exists to serve its students and the public, two groups that have become increasingly diverse. When these beneficiaries call for changes in the system to better support their dynamic needs, the university must adapt.

Other schools like UC Riverside, Cal Lutheran University, the University of Vermont, and Dickinson College all offer multilingual writing centers. Despite the fact that UCLA has more resources than these schools do, it doesn’t seem willing to commit as wholeheartedly to its students.

“If UCLA touts itself as a global player, it needs to support its multilingual community,” Holten said.

Committing to a multilingual writing center expresses a larger commitment to multilingual students. Failing to respect non-English writing implies non-English-speaking students don’t merit the same resources English-speaking students do.

UCLA likes to advertise itself as diverse, and claims to support multilingualism by enforcing a foreign language requirement for its graduates. But the school refuses to do even the bare minimum: help its students write in those languages.