Dark Dazey’s spontaneous creation of music invites elements of chaos, freedom

Dark Dazey’s fluctuating band roster reflects the fluidity of the group’s performance, said fourth-year ecology and evolutionary biology student Cole Heramb.

The psychedelic pop-rock band will perform its original song, “Swooning Moon Tune,” at the 2019 Spring Sing competition. Dark Dazey frontman Cole Heramb said bands like Pink Floyd and Arctic Monkeys heavily influenced its jazz-related grooves. Beginning as Heramb’s solo project, the group has evolved over time to include as many as seven musicians – each of whom will perform at Spring Sing – with customizable live performances characterized by audience participation, Heramb said.

“It started out more as me wanting to just make music and then realizing that music is inherently a social undertaking,” Heramb said. “Including other people that have these different styles and are bringing in all these different nuances and thoughts from whatever background they come from is extremely valuable.“

Graduate student Reese Rose said Heramb’s easygoing personality is reflected in the band’s creative process. Rose met Heramb while volunteering at the Angeles Academy of Music and was soon invited to play with the band. She found their relaxed band rehearsals often led to experimentation, and members are encouraged to riff freely, even if their improvisations don’t make it into the final song, she said.

“One of the things I especially love about people in Dark Dazey is that they all listen so well to each other,” Rose said. “If we want to play something that we haven’t rehearsed, I know that everyone’s going to be listening and watching.”

The band will often alter its performance based on crowd reactions. The overall tone may shift from mellow jams to high-energy grooves depending on the crowd’s mood, Rose said. It is for this reason that Dark Dazey performances deviate from their original tracks, leaving room for creativity, Heramb said.

“I think that’s really important to keep music organic and keep our shows very honest,” Heramb said. “Even though we are practicing the songs, there’s still a spark of chaos so we can make something very cool and dynamic.”

Second-year environmental science student Simon Hirschfield said the inclusive environment in creating music prompted his desire to join the band as a rhythm guitarist. After meeting Heramb at a mutual friend’s craft night, Hirschfield said the two would leisurely jam together on occasion. When a guitarist left the band, Hirschfield said he was able to formally play with Dark Dazey. The upcoming Spring Sing performance will be Hirschfield’s on-stage initiation into the band, he said.

“(Heramb) definitely has a vision of what he wants the music to sound like, but he’s not telling me every note to play,” Hirschfield said. “He points us in the right direction, but then he also leaves plenty of room for creativity and spontaneity in the music.”

The band’s instruments often vary between combinations of the guitar, bass, drums, trumpet and even flute. Despite the ever-changing set of performers, Heramb said he is not concerned with maintaining a strictly cohesive sound. Instead, he said he wishes to explore a spectrum of musical genres, from hard rock to soft acoustic pop that evoke feelings of positivity and love.

Dark Dazey’s live shows may begin with a simple invitation to the crowd to get on their feet, but the active engagement does not end there, Heramb said. Simple call and responses eventually advance to the band inviting audiences to howl along to the music like wolves, fueling Dark Dazey’s energy, he said. Hirschfield said he looks forward to performing alongside Dark Dazey because of the energized camaraderie between musicians and audience.

“I’d say to expect a musical journey even though we only have a couple of minutes to impart our touch on music. That’s how a lot of our live music is,” Hirschfield said. “It’s kind of like each song is its own little journey through the musical world and through each of our little minds.”

Seven-member band TAXI to bring upbeat funk and jazzy improv to competition’s coda

Michael Penny went from playing Guitar Hero to owning his first electric guitar at 10 years old.

Penny, a fourth-year classical civilization student, will perform his first ever gig at Spring Sing as a member of the funk, jazz and rock band TAXI.

The seven-member group also includes lead singer Nick Nikoian, who wrote the song they will perform to close out the competition’s performances. “Dancing on the Roof” combines the band members’ old-school inspirations to produce an energetic performance, said Nickoian, a fourth-year communication student.

“I kind of wanted to change things up and do something upbeat and lively, and kind of get everybody in a dancey, groovy mood. I feel like there’s not enough of that in Spring Sing,” Nikoian said. “Overall, it’s just about having a good time – it’s almost like a celebration.”

The song includes a saxophone solo, which Nikoian said he incorporated to add a funk-inspired breakdown to the song. The part consists of jazz-style improvisation, which keyboardist Nathaniel Harris said complements the band’s overall upbeat, mixed-genre sound.

Harris, a second-year music composition student, said he has played classical music his whole life, but he recently took more interest in jazz while playing with the band. He said he set his keyboard to an electric sound – similar to that of a 1970s Fender Rhodes piano – that gives his part a lo-fi effect.

“The keyboard is more of a background instrument in the song, but there are a few parts where I can add some cool stuff with my own little flair,” Harris said. “But for the most part I just lie back and let it join in on the whole group sound.”

Penny said he does not have much experience with jazz – or with playing group music in general. Though rehearsals with TAXI marked the first time he played guitar in a group of other instrumentalists, Penny said his funk and rock styles blended well with the jazzier aspects of Nikoian’s song.

“For me, guitar has always been a solo, personal thing,” Penny said. “Working with the song and making it my own, even though the song itself isn’t in my style, a lot of the things I do in my style – funky percussive riffs – accentuate other parts of the band really well.”

Influenced by the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Penny said he included his style in the chorus, where the song’s energy picks up. Similar to the saxophone solo, he said he allows himself to improvise some of the notes.

Having Harris on the keyboard allows for more freedom on the guitar, Penny said. Since the keys function as a background instrument in the song, they hold up structural aspects and melodies, which Penny said gives him more room to experiment with his guitar part.

“In a lot of bands, the guitar has to hold a large part of the melody, and to have (Harris) also anchoring that … (is) good because I can go off and do something different without breaking the melody of the song,” Penny said.

Harris said he contributed to the writing process for his own instrumentals. He said he is still learning about jazz elements in music, but adds extra notes while playing to maintain improvisation that supplements the band’s jazz-inspired feeling.

Most of the song’s upbeat and funky nature, however, comes from Nikoian’s writing style, Harris said. Having participated in Spring Sing the past three years, Nikoian said he wanted to branch out from the typical performance style of slower songs or ballads. He said the band’s old-school and up-tempo sound is even represented in its name, because bright yellow taxis, though not as prevalent today, are funky and fun. He said he also draws from a mix of older genres when creating music – like he did with “Dancing on the Roof” – and hopes audience members relate to the lyrics and celebratory energy.

“I listen to a lot of different songs that are essential to funk and disco to help me … because I’m pretty new to the songwriting game,” Nikoian said. “I tried to use all of my influences, combining pop, a little bit of jazz, a little bit of rock.”

Fixing game plan for student-athletes’ education would improve prospects

To some Bruins, maintaining a 2.6 GPA while juggling part-time jobs or extracurriculars might prove difficult.

To others, though, it’s the difference between a shot at their dreams and a career that doesn’t require drinking protein shakes.

The NCAA released Academic Progress Rate reports, which track student-athletes’ academic and retention rankings, earlier in May. Universities are judged for their ability to retain athletes, as well as for players’ academic performance – such as their GPAs. The final score is based on a four-year average.

UCLA currently ranks at the bottom of schools in the Pac-12 conference. But no one should be surprised: The university’s scores for men’s basketball and football have been declining for the past four years.

The men’s basketball team’s average score between 2015-2018 was 933, the lowest in the Pac-12. Football’s multiyear score is a lackluster 948, also the lowest score in the conference.

If Bruins on UCLA’s most popular teams become ineligible for the NCAA tournament, they won’t have a shot at the NBA or the NFL. All the resources UCLA provides athletes are akin to throwing money in the air if athletics teams end up only three points away from ineligibility.

Student-athletes’ academics need to be prioritized at all costs. Instead, UCLA seems complacent – accepting the lowest APR scores in the league as long as its athletes keep playing and bringing in funds.

The university has to do more to support these Bruins, especially with the great number of athletes transferring schools or striking out on a 2.6 GPA requirement. Student-athletes are driven to prioritize sports over their academics, and that will continue until UCLA incentivizes otherwise, perhaps by requiring less hours for game preparation. The university should ensure its athletes receive what they came here for: a college education and an athletics experience.

UCLA Athletics provides student-athletes with an academic mentorship program, academic counselors and special privileges like early enrollment. These players also have a specialized academic support plan with group or individual subject-based tutoring, athletic scholarships, travel accommodations and a mandatory alternative career leadership program. But these clearly aren’t adequate if the APR scores reflect that a large number of players are leaving the school with GPAs lower than 2.6.

Moreover, once student-athletes attain a 2.6 GPA, the university’s APR score is no longer at risk, meaning UCLA can push them to participate in NCAA tournaments to the fullest. That’s apparent, given the university does not set a higher GPA requirement than the NCAA requires, even though most student-athletes’ transcripts can be what carries them into their nonsports careers. The NCAA estimates that student-athletes have anywhere from less than a 1% to a 10% shot at going pro, depending on the sport.

Christina Rivera, UCLA’s senior associate athletic director, said 43 out of the 49 basketball players included in the APR metric received a perfect score, but six players with lower scores brought the average down to a 933 between the years of 2014 and 2018.

“Because of the amount of time (the athletes were) putting in (their) professional pursuits … (they) didn’t get the eligibility point (for not passing academic requirements) in spring and they didn’t receive the retention point for going pro,” Rivera said.

Vincent Cheng, a first-year aerospace engineering student who follows UCLA Athletics, said he is not surprised to see these scores, even though he’s aware of some of the resources student-athletes have.

“College sports make so much money off of them, even though athletics take up such a big portion of their time,” he said.

But the blame shouldn’t solely be placed on a few slacking students and players who left their teams. The declining APR scores indicate the school’s failure to support student-athletes with resources and its tendency to allow students to slip through the cracks.

Other schools in the Pac-12, like University of Oregon and USC, rank significantly lower academically than UCLA, but still crank out out higher APR scores. Over the past four years, Washington State University’s APR scores never dipped below 960, while its golf teams scored perfect 1,000s. Arizona State University is in its fourth year of hitting an average team score above 985.

If smaller schools in the Pac-12 with less resources – compared to UCLA’s planned athlete academic center – and less brand recognition can rise far beyond the 930 requirement, UCLA can definitely do better.

The university needs to recognize the common denominators in the student-athletes who leave UCLA with subpar GPAs. Most of them will not go on to pursue professional sports careers, so without shifting the focus onto academics, UCLA is putting these students at the bottom of the draft in their academic careers.

Certainly, the resources student-athletes have span from academia all the way to mental health – more than some other universities can provide. UCLA is even building a student-athlete academic center with donor money.

But let’s face it: A shiny new multimillion dollar academic center is not going to put the football team on honor roll. There is no magical solution to making student-athletes do better academically.

Except, of course, letting them hit the books instead of the gym.

UCLA needs equitable allocation of private donation funds to all departments

The year is 2050. State funding for the University of California has dwindled to mere pennies. UCLA departments are forced to grovel for donations with flashy titles and perks, and department chairs vie for philanthropists like players in the Hunger Games do.

If only the nation’s top public university weren’t so private.

State support for the UC has dropped by 17% since 1990. The result is that the University’s operating costs continue to rise. Campuses like UCLA have progressively become less public as they shift toward a funding model more akin to a business.

To make up the gap in state funding, UCLA has had to turn toward more funding from private donors. And while it’s good that philanthropists have stepped up to the plate to cushion the blow, this has created an imbalanced distribution of funds.

After all, some donors have specific interests, which leads to greater preference for some subjects over others and can put a greater emphasis on more practical and conventionally profitable departments. This forces less-popular departments to pick up the slack in finding money to function. If they aren’t able to find the funds they need, they are forced to cut faculty and research.

This is a troubling trend. Departments shouldn’t get less support because they are not seen as valuable or interesting to donors. The university is for the exploration of new knowledge, and it should ensure more equitable distribution of donations to make sure a diverse range of research and learning is supported.

UCLA brought in $379 million in private gifts in 2018, more than twice its 2008 collection of $170 million. Most recently, the university has raised $4.7 billion in its ongoing Centennial Campaign.

These trends are important, especially given that a significant portion of the Centennial Campaign fundraising is made up of gifts or donations to UCLA’s endowment. Donors can specify what departments they want their gifts to fund, so departments they consider more important get more of their funding.

We can see this already with the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

As state funding dwindled, the Anderson School laid out a plan to become fully self-supportive without any reliance on state funds. This plan was approved in 2013. This model gave it greater flexibility in hiring faculty, more stable tuition and fees and increased ability to raise money from donors.

Marvin Lieberman, a professor at the Anderson School, said salaries of faculty are set at levels to be competitive with other business schools.

The Anderson School has hired high-quality faculty, which further bolsters its brand and donor confidence. It seemingly has been a success: The school can operate independent of state politics and better curate an environment that donors want to give to.

But UCLA should not lean in on this approach for other departments. Donors do not donate to all departments equally because the demographic tends to slant toward certain academic backgrounds, like STEM or managerial professions.

For less-popular majors, such as history or Asian American studies, funding is harder to come by. And unlike more-popular departments, the donors they do have are more likely to influence what subtopics get funding.

Carla Pestana, the history department chair, said part of her job is reaching out to potential donors to compile the necessary funds the department needs.

“The money is used to hire staff, set up educational conferences and fund graduate and some undergraduate research trips,” Pestana said.

But even with private donations, the history department has suffered setbacks due to the lack of state funding. Pestana said the department has gone from having 80 faculty members to about 50. This makes it harder to give students a large set of courses in its curriculum, and limits the depth of research it conducts.

Pestana added that the history graduate program has also been pulled back and only admits as many graduate students as it can fund. The funding that the history department does receive is unequal across topics, which limits the department’s scope of research.

The UC Office of the President Budget for Current Operations report states the University’s value is in educating the workforce for the demand of the economy and in providing students with dynamic cultural opportunities, which have less explicit values.

Unfortunately, donors aren’t always capable of recognizing or appreciating those values.

There are a variety of solutions to this problem. More state funding would help, and UCLA is pushing for this. UCLA should also be vigilant in reorienting donation policy so that private gifts are not restrictive, which would prevent the unequal distributions of department funding.

Some might argue that the reason department donations are disproportionate is because alumni from the conventionally profitable majors have more money, making for a larger donation base for certain departments. But David Geffen, UCLA’s largest donor, never went to the university – and still chose to direct the majority of his donations to the UCLA medical school.

The university is meant to be a unique forum for academic freedom of all areas of study. Donations are supposed to help achieve that ideal, and UCLA should ensure that.

Otherwise, 30 years from now, departments might just end up being sent into the arena to scrounge for donations.

Scholarship fund struggles to reach half mark, Centennial raises extra $500 million

This post was updated on May 17 at 5:33 p.m.

Despite being more than half a billion dollars short of its target donations for student scholarships, UCLA reached its Centennial Campaign fundraising goal nearly a year ago.

UCLA began its Centennial Campaign fundraising efforts May 2014 and pledged to raise funds for areas such as athletics, graduate programs, research and scholarships. In July, UCLA announced the campaign reached their $4.2 billion total target.

Since then, the university raised an additional $500 million, totaling $4.7 billion raised as of this story’s publication. About $50 million of the additional amount were for student scholarships. Fundraising for scholarships has been nearly 10 times slower than fundraising for all the other areas combined.

The additional funds raised also included $15 million to rename the Botany Building, $25 million to rename the Humanities Building and support humanities departments, and $15 million contributing to a new on-campus student-athlete academic facility.

“I keep reminding people (scholarships are) my main priority. Slowly but surely we are going get to a billion. We may not get to a billion dollars by the end of the campaign, who knows? But we will keep working,” Chancellor Gene Block said.

UCLA’s target for scholarships is $1 billion. Currently, UCLA has raised $496 million for student scholarships, according to its website.

Vice Chancellor of External Affairs Rhea Turteltaub said UCLA will continue fundraising for student scholarships even after the Centennial Campaign concludes in December.

More than half of the campaign’s donors are first-time givers. Individual donations under $10,000 make up 488,000 of the campaign’s more than 500,000 donations.

Alumni make up over 100,000 donors to the campaign, totaling about $1.3 billion in donations. Aside from alumni, donors come from other sectors, such as private companies, parents of UCLA students and philanthropists.

UCLA development coordinators work to cultivate relationships with prospective or current donors to entice giving or broaden the scope of that donor’s gift. Turteltaub said the most important factor is engaging donors with the impact of their gift. For example, scholarship donors have opportunities to meet with scholarship recipients through UCLA-sponsored luncheons or dinners.

Block said he has sat through a number of scholarship fundraising events, some of which are dinners at his residence.

“It was truly moving. We heard the impact on students’ lives. And these are students who wouldn’t be at UCLA without donor support,” Block said.

Beyond these events, Block said the health system and athletics remain two areas where donors donate before giving to the College.

“Not everybody wants to give to scholarships, some people want to give to other things. But we are working hard to try to attract donors to scholarship support,” he said.

The campaign’s development coordinators said it is difficult to convince donors to give toward student scholarships because contributors have different interests.

“It’s very much donor driven. We do try to explain it’s expensive to go here, but they might not be interested,” said Senior Executive Director of Development Melanie Burzynski. “They might say they would rather fund research. We just listen to them in the best way that we can.”

Burzynski said it is important to respect donor wishes.

“You got to go back to where the donors feel like where they want to give the money. It really goes back to where they want (to put) their investment in,” Burzynski said. “You kind of have to honor that in all of it.”

UCLA sends a quarterly campaign newsletter to donors with a lifetime giving of $100,000 or more, according to UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vasquez. The campaign website is also refreshed quarterly.

The Centennial Campaign primarily receives donations through its website. Potential donors can find anecdotes that explain what previous donations were used for. Of the stories featured on the page, almost a quarter promote student scholarships.

One of the stories publicized by UCLA features students receiving scholarships from “The Big Bang Theory” Scholarship Endowment. The endowment was initially funded by the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation in 2015 as part of the Centennial Campaign.It provides need-based scholarships for students pursuing degrees in STEM.

Kemeka Corry, a fourth-year psychobiology student, said the scholarship enabled her to attend UCLA as an out-of-state student. Her brother graduated from the University of Washington, and her sister plans to stay in Washington for college.

“I don’t even want to imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t come here,” she said. “This scholarship is what enabled me to come here.”

The scholarship provided Corry with more than just the funds needed to finance her education at UCLA. She said she also found networking opportunities, joined a community of STEM students and fostered a relationship with UCLA alumna Mayim Bialik.

“For me, as a die-hard Bruin, it has a special significance because when I was a Bruin. … I applied to every scholarship that I could,” Bialik said. “To meet students from my alma mater is really special.”

Bialik, who plays Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler on “The Big Bang Theory,” is one of 50 cast and crew members who contributed gifts to “The Big Bang Theory” Scholarship Endowment. An inaugural group of 20 students were awarded this scholarship in 2015. Five additional students were selected each year in the years following.

Bialik attended UCLA for 12 years, earning her undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the university. She said she remembers applying for many scholarship opportunities throughout her college career.

“I know what it’s like to be a student and have to balance everything, and I had many friends who were holding down jobs and trying to get to class,” Bialik said.

Other donors funding “The Big Bang Theory” Scholarship did not attend UCLA. But Bialik said that cast and crew members wanted to help support students who were entering college to study sciences and felt inspired by their show.

“People really like the ‘brick and mortar’ donation, where they get to build a building or put their name on a wall, but I think it’s really important to remember that the backbone of our university is the students who go there,” Bialik said.

 

UCPD searching for perpetrators in series of at least 20 car burglaries

University police are searching for one or more individuals involved in a series of car burglaries.

The individuals stole car batteries from at least 20 vehicles parked at various UCLA parking structures between May 6 and Wednesday. Most of the cars belonged to UCLA students, faculty and staff, according to a UCPD crime alert.

UCPD did not provide a description of the individuals.

UCPD advises members of the campus community lock their vehicles and report any suspicious activity.

The case is currently under investigation. Anyone with information about the case can call UCPD at 310-825-1491.