Art show seeks to highlight diverse roles in the environmental justice movement

Repurposed trash will be the focus of UCLA’s upcoming art show: “Our Ecological Footprint: Expressions of Environmentalism.”

The show will kick off the UCLA Renewable Energy Association’s Waste Awareness Week on Monday. Held at the Kerckhoff Art Gallery, the event will feature student-made pieces, including interactive exhibits, poetry readings, sculptures and photography – all created with an environmental mindset. Co-creator Ariana Mamnoon, a fourth-year geography and environmental systems and society student, said the event aims in part to highlight the diversity of voices in the environmental justice movement and entice students of all backgrounds to attend the week’s events. She said the movement is sometimes dominated by the wealthy, and wants to demonstrate through the show that other socioeconomic groups also partake in environmental activism.

“Environmental science is a great discipline, but there are some inequalities that exist in it,” Mamnoon said. “We had a lot of different types of people submit to (the show) and showcase that environmentalism shouldn’t be a field that is dominated by one type of person.”

Mamnoon and Liliana Epps, co-founder of Environmentalists of Color Collective at UCLA, decided over a year ago that they wanted to put on an environmental art show, driven by their passion for the environment and activist art. Mamnoon and Epps, a third-year gender studies student, teamed up with REA, which reached out to the Environmentalists of Color Collective while planning Waste Awareness Week.

“You see all these art shows happening around Westwood, and it’s cool to do one that’s taken on more of discipline and is using that to make art,” said Mamnoon.

Epps said she is most excited about the different media of art on display, such as traditional photography, poetry readings and interactive exhibits which she said will make the show more engaging. One installation is a mossy box with eyeholes for the viewer to lean in and see a landscape full of waste, representing the dangers of environmental complacency, Mamnoon said. Mamnoon said the show will even include a guided meditation.

One of the goals of the art show is also to shed light on the overwhelming amount of trash people mindlessly discard. Kayli Masuda, a first-year chemical engineering student and a planning committee member of REA, said putting the issue of excessive trash into a visual medium, particularly by repurposing it as art, draws focus to the fact that the vast majority of our trash is not repurposed, but goes to a landfill. Mamnoon said the exhibition also visually illustrates how trash can be reused.

“We have this ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality where we just throw things away without realizing its impact on the environment,” Masuda said. “We don’t realize it’s ending up somewhere.”

One piece that will be featured is entirely created from a single styrofoam plate with finger-painted patterns that illustrate earth, wind, fire and water. The goal of the piece is to illustrate the resilience of life in our changing environment, Mamnoon said.

Another goal of the event is to incorporate different demographic groups and art forms that are sometimes overlooked. Environmental justice representation can often have inequalities, but Mamnoon said the event hopes to showcase activists of various backgrounds and majors, and encourage greater participation in environmental science. Epps said that some pieces in the show are reminiscent of the environmental art of indigenous cultures. For example, there will be a piece rooted in how a Mexican/indigenous/mestiza and American/white-passing student navigate environmentalism with these multiple identities and cultures.

“There is a lot of art by black and indigenous people that is actually environmental art, but it might not be considered to be,” Epps said. “A lot of the pieces we’ll show next week wouldn’t necessarily be thought of as environmental art; people might think of them as indigenous issues instead, but they all go hand in hand and are intertwined.”

Ursula Heise, a professor within the English department and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, said environmentalism is deeply cultural; any attempt to conserve nature is entangled with cultural assumptions and values which must be addressed. Environmental activism through art and literature is not a new discipline, she said, and it is important that environmental issues are of interest to individuals of all professions and interests, since they are all responsible.

“Certainly science and technology are important, but at bottom, a lot of environmental issues are issues of value of culture and of meaning,” said Heise, “It’s what kind of nature we want to see in the future, and a lot of conservation is actually inspired by the aesthetic appreciation of particular kinds of landscapes.”

The art show will not only play an important role in bridging the gap between culture and environmental justice, but also offer a laid-back, artistic way of explaining these issues. The goal of Waste Awareness Week is to tackle the impact of waste mismanagement on the environment. After “Our Ecological Footprint: Expressions of Environmentalism,” there will be additional sustainability-centered events throughout the week, including waste reduction and awareness workshops on Wednesday and an overall audit of UCLA waste practices on Friday as the university attempts to reach its goal of zero waste by 2020.

“In the rest of the week, there might not be anything that’s geared toward people that aren’t science majors or in the environmental field, whereas art is an easy way to draw people in,” Epps said. “It can help them get an idea of what environmentalism is and what it means in a less structured, more fun way.”

Letter from the editor: Why we’re switching out submissions for op-eds

The principal mission of any local newspaper is to tell the stories of its community.

Sometimes, though, those stories are best told by the community itself.

The Daily Bruin, like any credible local media organization, offers members of the public the opportunity to respond to published content and share their viewpoints about issues related to the community. These pieces are published in the paper’s Opinion section and collectively labeled as submissions.

Submissions have historically been the lifeblood of Daily Bruin Opinion. Students and administrators alike would send in letters to the editor to share their campus experiences or have their side of the story heard. Fraternity leaders wrote about broken typewriters, minority students responded in the 1960s to the Greek Life takeover of UCLA’s undergraduate student government, and administrators defended themselves against stories about some of their more questionable practices. Even then-California Governor Ronald Reagan wrote a letter to the Daily Bruin – albeit, to cover up an administrative ousting and to accuse the paper of peddling fake news.

That mainstay has since receded. The Opinion section went from a series of pages to a single page. And an understanding of how to submit pieces to the Daily Bruin – once a part of the campus literacy – has led to myself and the Opinion editors preceding me starting nearly every email from opinion@dailybruin.com with a description of what submissions and the technicalities surrounding them are.

Perhaps the need for a reputable marketplace of ideas in print or online lost its following with the advent of online forums and social media. Pressing the post button on Facebook is much easier than jumping through hoops to get your words published in the Daily Bruin. And those who care to go through the trouble are often student leaders or administrators looking to project their voices or update the campus on their agendas.

Of course, I’m not here to commiserate about the difficulties of filling the Opinion page.

I’m here to make a simple announcement: The Daily Bruin is no longer referring to submissions from the public as “submissions,” but rather “op-eds,” much like how other reputable newspapers do. The idea is to make it easier for readers to identify what pieces from the public are, and perhaps even convince more to write to the paper.

That’s it.

And to be honest, when Jacob Preal, the Daily Bruin’s editor-in-chief, approached me about writing a letter regarding the change, I didn’t imagine it going for more than 150 words – 200 if I was going to put on my “I’m writing a paper for a class” hat.

But at a time when the free press has come under attack, when people in power are increasingly guarded against media coverage, and when we’re becoming more socially attuned to the narratives of underrepresented communities, newsrooms need to think hard about what they are doing to tell everyone’s stories.

The Daily Bruin has had that conversation a lot. I know because I’ve been in many of them.

The community still has many untold stories. These are stories we all need to hear – stories about clandestine administrative decisions, an increasingly mobilized student body, silenced voices, antiquated social structures and an underfunded institution.

The conventional way to bring these to light is to report on them: to have a journalist write about what they see or hear, careful to not inject their biases.

Sometimes that isn’t good enough, though – sometimes the story is best told by the people living it.

It takes a lot of courage to do that. And, perhaps most importantly, it requires knowing there’s someone who’s always willing to listen.

That’s who we at the Daily Bruin strive to be. This change is a chance for us to bolster that effort in earnest.

Yes, it’s semantic – literally replacing a 10-letter word with a four-letter one. But behind the scenes, there’s a commitment, and hope, to offer a platform for people to share their stories and drive the campus discussion and narrative.

Submissions from the public can be promotional avenues for campus leaders to share their ideas. But they’re also a space for those without a voice to have one – for those who can to bring to light the stories that haven’t been told, be it about something as seemingly minute as campus vending machines to something as serious as losing your job for speaking out against an injustice.

And yes, submissions from the public are also a room for the university to respond in earnest to the campus community.

Take this letter whichever way you want – a tired college student rejoicing at not having to repeatedly explain things, an attempt to appease concerns about bias in coverage or a plea for more write-ins from the community.

Regardless, we’re here to listen.

 

Sincerely,

 

Keshav Tadimeti

Opinion editor

Editorial: Regents should increase student representation, not create meaningless positions

When it comes to student representation, quality always trumps quantity.

Especially when it comes to the University of California.

The UC Board of Regents will vote this week on whether to terminate the position of student adviser to the regents. The regents created the position in 2016 following a push for more undergraduate student representation. The position was meant to make recommendations to the board on relevant student issues, particularly in committees where the student regent and student regent-designate do not serve.

The catch: The position isn’t designated any voting power, and doesn’t have access to closed-session regents meetings.

The position was and still is a bad deal for students. A representative with no voting power in a body that makes decisions by vote is nothing but a lame duck. And for two years, regents have patted themselves on the back for having three student representatives – one student regent and two non-voting de facto advisers – on their 26-person board.

The student adviser position was little more than a symbolic dog bone. The regents should scrap the position and do what they should have done years ago: allocate resources to initiate the process of adding another student regent – a process that could involve passing a state ballot proposition.

Instating two voting student regents is the bare minimum the regents can do to truly increase shared governance of the University. Adding another seat at the table is the only way the board can demonstrate its commitment to student interests and representation.

Moreover, student representation is crucial for a body — affected by political, business and industry influence — that votes on our most critical issues, including tuition and healthcare. Figurehead positions do little, especially when it comes to the few voices students are already afforded on the Board of Regents.

We saw as much these past two years. Student advisers to the regents have made little difference on the board. Rafi Sands, a former UCLA undergraduate student and first-ever student adviser, could do little to convince regents to sway votes on tuition increases or capital projects. In fact, Sands received heavy criticism from students for not providing any comment about a tuition hike during a March 2018 open-session committee meeting – a frustratingly understandable consequence of having a student representative with no voting power.

The short, one-year term of the adviser is also to blame, since new members can’t be expected to shape the position’s relationship with the rest of the board each year. Add in that students have only one vote on the regents, and it’s no wonder student interests are minor considerations in the board’s discussions.

Certainly, the UC Student Association – a systemwide organization that advocates on behalf of student needs – has vied for having the student adviser position. After all, it was a way to get traction with an administration comprised of some of the most powerful figures in California.

But having a board that is privy to dialogue isn’t the same as having a board that acts on such dialogue. Sure, adding another voting student member to the board would require an expensive, full-fledged campaign for a ballot proposition, but a student adviser shouldn’t be the cop-out for more equitable shared governance.

The student adviser position was an interesting experiment in student representation on the Board of Regents. The results are in, though: an adviser isn’t a regent.

The sooner the UC realizes that, the better.

Bruins drop first conference game with 79-66 loss at Oregon State

For a brief moment, the Bruins looked like they were back.

But a 19-3 Beaver run put those hopes to bed.

UCLA men’s basketball (10-7, 3-1 Pac-12) took its first lead with 15:48 left to play, but after five minutes of back-and-forth basketball, Oregon State (11-4, 3-0) pulled away en route to a 79-66 win Sunday night. Eight straight points from sophomore guard Jaylen Hands and a fast break assist to sophomore guard Kris Wilkes gave the Bruins a 47-46 lead with 11:16 remaining, but the Beavers had a 32-20 edge to close out the game.

Hands’ pass to a slashing Wilkes on that run was one of his two assists – tied for his season low and just the second time this season he finished with fewer than three.

Wilkes was able to surpass his season average of 17.2 points per game with a game-high 21 on Sunday night, but he was just 8-of-22 from the field. Wilkes was 2-of-9 from deep before hitting two 3-pointers in garbage time.

Despite Wilkes’ late push, he is still shooting 31.5 percent from long range, down from his 35.2 percent mark in his freshman campaign.

Wilkes was not the only Bruin struggling to make shots, however.

UCLA shot 38.1 percent from the field, their worst outing under interim coach Murry Bartow.

Once again, the Bruins shot 47.6 percent from the charity stripe, tanking their 62.8 mark entering the game – which was the worst among major D-1 programs – down to an even 62.

Freshman center Moses Brown fell one rebound and one point short of his seventh double-double of the year, but he was able to reel in nine boards for the fifth-straight game. Brown lost the head-to-head seven-footer matchup with Oregon State big man Kylor Kelley, who scored 14 points with perfect shooting from the field and free throw line to go along with a game-high five blocks.

UCLA dropped to 1-5 outside of Pauley Pavilion this season in just their third true road game of the year. There were 1,677 students in Gill Coliseum – the most Oregon State had drawn since March 4, 2015 – to watch their team hand UCLA its first loss of conference play.

And like most of the Bruins’ losses this season, it wasn’t even close.

The 13-point loss was actually the second-closest matchup of the seven games the Bruins have dropped this season. UCLA’s opponents now average a 15.6-point margin of victory when they take down the Bruins, with Belmont’s two-point win being the only single-digit deficit in those games.

Bartow will follow up his first loss as interim coach with the final game of UCLA’s five-game road trip against USC on Saturday.

Men’s basketball trails Oregon State 32-26 at halftime in Corvallis

The Bruins have not led all night.

UCLA men’s basketball (10-6, 3-0 Pac-12) took a three-game winning streak into Corvallis to take on Oregon State (10-4, 2-0) on Sunday night, but are now facing a 32-26 deficit at halftime. The Bruins shot 27.6 percent from the field and are on pace for 52 points – well below their conference play average of 92.3.

After a scoreless stretch by both teams in the first two minutes, the Bruins trailed for the next five-plus minutes. A corner trap with 12:25 left in the half led to a steal by freshman forward Jalen Hill, who dumped an outlet pass to redshirt junior guard Prince Ali for a slam that knotted the score at 12.

Ali leads UCLA with eight points, and freshman center Moses Brown is the only other Bruin with five or more points.

The Beavers pulled back ahead after a 16-16 tie, stretching their lead to as much as nine points.

The Beavers’ leading scorer this season, forward Tres Tinkle, was averaging 20.5 points per game entering Sunday. Tinkle scored four points on 2-of-5 shooting in 18 minutes.

Tinkle missed Oregon State’s matchup against USC on Thursday with an ankle injury and was listed as probably for tonight’s game.

Sophomore guard Kris Wilkes – the Bruins’ leading scorer with a 17.1 points per game entering Sunday – went 1-of-7 from the field and put up just three points.

UCLA’s 26 points tied its season low for points in a first half this season and worst offensive period under interim coach Murry Bartow.

Men’s volleyball dominates Midwest matches with straight-set, record-breaking wins

The Bruins returned from their road trip with a broken record.

No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball (4-1) defeated McKendree (1-1) and Lindenwood (0-2) this weekend on its trip to the Midwest by scores of 3-0 and 3-0, respectively.

Junior middle blocker Daenan Gyimah broke the single-game hitting percentage record in the Bruins’ first game of the weekend against McKendree.

Gyimah hit for .917, breaking the previous record of .900 held by Don Dendinger, Tim Kelly, Mark Williams, Steve Klosterman, and Allan Vince. Gyimah said he did not have the record in mind as he played.

“Usually I’m mindful of what my hitting percentage is, but today I didn’t even notice and I was just trying to attack every single ball hard,” Gyimah said.

Coach John Speraw said there were many factors that contributed to Gyimah’s success.

“(Senior setter) Micah (Ma’a) got him in good spots,” Speraw said. “(Gyimah) made some real nice shots. He hit deep a couple times. He’s getting better at running some different routes. That’s impressive with the history of UCLA volleyball. He’s obviously in my mind one of the greatest attackers we’ve ever had.”

Gyimah accumulated 11 kills on his path to breaking the record, but he did not lead the Bruins in kills. Redshirt junior opposite Brandon Rattray led UCLA with 13 kills, but said his and Gyimah’s success was due to the team’s passing.

“What made (Gyimah’s record) possible was great passing tonight,” Rattray said. “When we pass well, it frees us all up. It’s very good for both of us – with how big of a threat he is, it opens me up.”

The Bruins as a whole hit for .636 in the first set and .625 in the third set as UCLA beat McKendree in straight sets.

Rattray tallied 11 more kills in UCLA’s second game of the weekend against Lindenwood to become the Bruins’ leading hitter in back-to-back games. Gyimah sat out the entire second set and did not come back in until the Bruins were up 23-22 in the third set. Speraw said this was due to serving inconsistencies.

“I decided to make a change when we were down, get a little different look, and get a different server,” Speraw said. “(Gyimah) hasn’t been serving very well.”

Redshirt junior middle blocker Matthew Younggren was one of the players who replaced Gyimah. Younggren ended the night with a perfect hitting percentage and six kills. Speraw said he has confidence in all of his middle blockers.

“I think we have some depth at that position. (Younggren) is good. (Sophomore) Grant (Maleski) is good and getting better. Obviously (Gyimah) is great,” Speraw said.

The trio combined to record a total of 12 kills as the Bruins swept their opponent for the second time in as many days. Younggren said everyone on the team is prepared to play on any given day.

“We’re always ready,” Younggren said. “We have a pretty deep roster. Everyone’s ready to go and back each other up.”

UCLA will play No. 10 UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday before finishing the week against reigning champion No. 1 Long Beach State in Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.

No Offense, But: Bruin bears and block parties

“No Offense, But” is back in your podcast feeds for the new year! Join Opinion editor Keshav Tadimeti, assistant Opinion editor Omar Said, and Opinion columnists Abhishek Shetty and Reilly Berberian as they talk about teenagers being charged with felonies for vandalizing the Bruin Bear. After a quick break, they give the rundown about the latest in Westwood drama: Roebling Avenue block party 2.0.