Daily Bruin – Page 99

Seven potential opponents await beach volleyball at NCAA championship

No. 2 seed UCLA beach volleyball will have the opportunity to defend its national title in Gulf Shores, Alabama, this weekend. UCLA will face No. 7 seed Hawai’i in the first round of the NCAA championship at 9 a.m. on Friday.

No. 1 seed USC

No. 1 seed USC (28-4) will begin its quest for its third title in four years with a first round matchup against No. 8 seed Stetson on Friday.

The Trojans have won 12 straight contests, and they captured their third Pac-12 conference championship April 27 on their home sand.

USC has faced UCLA five times this season. The Bruins won the first two meetings, but the Trojans won the next three, including two wins in two days during the Pac-12 championship.

The Trojans could face No. 4 seed Pepperdine, one of just three teams they have lost to this season, in the second round.

No. 3 seed Florida State

No. 3 seed Florida State (28-5) will head to its fourth straight NCAA championship, with a match against No. 6 seed Cal Poly set for Friday.

The Seminoles come into the tournament with 12 consecutive wins, including winning a fourth straight Coastal Collegiate Sports Association championship, and have only lost to three teams all year – UCLA, USC and LSU.

Florida State finished as last year’s runner-up, falling to UCLA in the championship game 3-1. The Bruins and Seminoles faced each other twice this season, both games ending 4-1 in favor of UCLA.

The two will face off for the third time May 3 at 2 p.m. if both win their first round matchups.

No. 4 seed Pepperdine

No. 4 seed Pepperdine (20-9) will start with its lowest-ever seed at an NCAA championship.

The Waves have been seeded either second or third in the past three seasons, but they arrive in Gulf Shores after losing twice to then-No. 14 Loyola Marymount to lose the West Coast Conference Championship.

Pepperdine has faced UCLA three times this season and lost all three contests. This included a 5-0 sweep for the Bruins, which was the first time the Waves had ever been swept in the regular season in program history.

Pepperdine will start the tournament against No. 5 seed LSU. The Waves lost to the Tigers 3-2 in the East Meets West Invitational at Manhattan Beach, California, on March 9.

No. 5 seed LSU

No. 5 seed LSU (29-6) will be competing in its third straight NCAA championship.

The Tigers claimed an at-large bid after falling to No. 3 Florida State in the finals of the CCSA championship.

UCLA and LSU have matched up twice this season, with the Bruins winning 4-1 on both March 9 and 29. The Bruin pair of sophomore Lea Monkhouse and junior Savvy Simo was the only pair to lose in both meetings.

LSU will face No. 4 seed Pepperdine first, a rematch of earlier this season, when the Tigers won 3-2.

No. 6 seed Cal Poly

No. 6 seed Cal Poly (25-10) will make its NCAA championship debut against No. 3 seed Florida State on Friday.

The Mustangs went undefeated at last weekend’s Big West Tournament to win their first-ever conference title and have suffered just three losses to teams outside of the top 10.

But the last time Cal Poly faced UCLA, the Bruins swept the Mustangs 5-0.

If the Bruins and the Mustangs win their first round matches, the teams will face each other Friday at 2 p.m.

No. 7 seed Hawai’i

No. 7 seed Hawai’i (26-9) will face UCLA in the first round of the NCAA championship.

The then-No. 1 seed Bruins defeated the then-No. 3 Rainbow Wahine in last year’s NCAA semifinals.

UCLA faced Hawai’i once this season, sweeping it 5-0 on Feb. 27 on its home courts – but three of the five courts went to three sets.

The teams will play again Friday at 9 a.m.

No. 8 seed Stetson

No. 8 seed Stetson (29-8) will make its second NCAA championship appearance in program history.

The Hatters competed as the No. 8 seed in 2016 before being knocked out by the then-No. 4 seed Bruins. UCLA swept Stetson 5-0 at the FIU Surf & Turf Invitational in Miami earlier this season.

The loss was one of the Hatters’ eight on the season – with seven coming to top-10 opponents.

Stetson will face No. 1 seed USC in the first round Friday.

Women’s tennis to host Northern Arizona in first round of NCAA championship

The Bruins will begin their bid for the NCAA title this weekend.

No. 7 seed UCLA women’s tennis (18-7, 8-2 Pac-12) will begin the NCAA championship by welcoming Northern Arizona (15-8, 9-1 Big Sky) to the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Saturday.

The Bruins finished second in the conference championship last weekend and secured the No. 7 seed heading into national competition.

A loss to Stanford in the conference final sent UCLA home with its second defeat against the Cardinal this season, but coach Stella Sampras Webster said the team felt confident after two hard fought battles against one of the nation’s top teams.

“I was really encouraged by our team,” Sampras Webster said. “It really just takes a couple of our players to step up in singles and we could be a final-four team.”

The NCAA championship features a single elimination format, and Sampras Webster said the team will only need a few players to get hot to make a deep run.

Senior Gabby Andrews has clinched victories in her last five singles matches, including victories against No. 13 seed USC and No. 3 seed Stanford.

“(Andrews) is really committed to contributing to the team,” Sampras Webster said. “It’s been mentally great for her knowing that she can win those matches.”

Redshirt junior Jada Hart has not dropped a doubles match since March 9, but she said the team will have to trust its singles play in order to advance.

“That’s just going to be the main key,” Hart said. “We need to stick together because if you lose, you’re done. So it’s just about staying in it throughout the good matches and the not-so-great ones.”

Senior Alaina Miller was unable to secure a singles win against the Cardinal and has lost four of her last six singles matches, with two going unfinished. Miller said the team’s recent performances are a testament to its ability to do well in the postseason.

“We’ve had two really close matches with (Stanford), so it’s very exciting if we do have to play them again,” Miller said. “Knowing we can battle against that top team, that’ll help playing against other teams.”

UCLA’s next test is a Northern Arizona team entering postseason play on an 11-game winning streak.

“There’s a different excitement,” Miller said. “We know that this is the finale and we have a really good chance of doing well.”

The first-round will begin Saturday at noon.

Student receives scholarship to provide health care to low-income communities

This post was updated May 9 at 5:32 p.m.

Ahmad Elhaija first developed a plan for a new nonprofit organization when he was 15 years old.

Five years later in April, Elhaija won a $15,000 scholarship for establishing the International Collegiate Health Initiative.

Elhaija, the founder and chief executive officer of ICHI and a second-year psychobiology student, received the Strauss Foundation Scholarship, which provides funding for students to create and develop their own service projects. ICHI, founded in 2017, aims to provide low-income communities with access to health care services, Elhaija said.

Growing up in a low-income area of West Anaheim, Elhaija said he struggled to find sufficient treatment for his asthma and cyclic neutropenia, a rare blood disorder characterized by recurring low levels of white blood cells.

“I used to bounce around from clinic to clinic, hospital to hospital, to try to get my disorder treated,” Elhaija said. “When I was older, I had access to Kaiser Permanente and I feel that if I had one location where I could go to, I could trust, that would have helped me instead of having to go from place to place.”

Elhaija said he hopes ICHI will be able to help other low-income communities access the medical treatments they need.

ICHI aims to set up a community clinic in the cities of Maywood and Bell, both of which are adjacent to East Los Angeles, Elhaija said.

Elhaija said he chose Maywood for the clinic site because of its population density and high rate of uninsured and low-income individuals.

“It was a very religious community, (with) low rates of STDs, low rates of pregnancy,” Elhaija said. “Yet one of the clear problems was the lack of health care present and the willingness for the community to improve and have programs like ours within the city.”

ICHI plans to host the clinic once per month for now, alternating between the two locations, said Elhaija.

“If the cities liked what we were doing, they would provide us with further funding to expand the program,” Elhaija said.

ICHI is also partnering with the Social Enterprise Academy to create a paid mentorship program to give students access to mentorship, test preparation and internships at the clinic and different medical centers in Los Angeles. The Social Enterprise Academy is a program that allows UCLA students to help nonprofit organizations find ways to increase their earned income.

ICHI aims to further develop its mentorship program and community clinic and provide nutritional services to high-need populations. Funding from the Strauss scholarship will be used to further develop the community health clinic project, Elhaija said.

Diego Zavala, ICHI’s community programs office coordinator and second-year mathematics of computation student, said he joined ICHI because he also struggled with accessing adequate treatment for health issues as a child in Mexico, where he was born.

“I didn’t receive the best treatment in Mexico just because they don’t have the best technology there,” Zavala said. “When I came to the United States, I was able to get treatment just because of the health care (system here).”

Zavala said this experience made him want to help out families that don’t receive or aren’t aware of health care benefits.

Zavala said that the ICHI aims to host their first clinical fair in Maywood around October.

“It was in our sights to host it before we graduated, I just didn’t think it would come so soon just because of funding,” Zavala said. “It’s like the most rewarding experience from being in ICHI.”

Ashin Jose, ICHI’s chief operations officer and a second-year financial actuarial mathematics student who has known Elhaija since high school, said he knew ICHI would be successful right from the beginning.

Jose added Elhaija had a strong passion for helping the underserved during high school as well.

“He developed programs that provided assistance to underserved communities,” Jose said. “For example, he started this organization called the SAT ACT club to provide practice exams and study materials for underserved students within our school community.”

Jose said Elhaija’s determination and charisma is what makes him a skilled leader.

“He has the capacity to share his passion with others, which is a crucial skill you need as a leader (in order) to inspire others.” Jose said.

Elhaija said he hopes to expand the ICHI to other countries.

“The whole idea is we create a system that can be replicated at any college anywhere around the world. … We could have this potentially at places in Syria, in Palestine, in places of high need all across the world.” Elhaija said.

North Westwood Neighborhood Council discusses Sepi’s closure and reasons for it

Westwood stakeholders said the closure of a local sports bar was a failure as a community at a meeting Wednesday.

The first agenda item of the North Westwood Neighborhood Council addressed the closure of Sepi’s, a longstanding Westwood sports bar. Sepi’s closed Tuesday after being unable to relocate.

Other agenda items were tabled for later meetings due to a lack of time.

Kevin Crummy, a NWWNC member and chief investment officer of real estate company Douglas Emmett, said Sepi’s was unable to find a new location because of their distinction as a fast food restaurant. The Westwood Village Specific Plan, the master planning document that outlines zoning regulations, limits the number of fast food restaurants on each street.

Instead, the owners of Sepi’s decided to terminate their lease early for a payment of around $700,000 from their landlord, Crummy said.

Josh Trifunovic, NWWNC member and owner of Rocco’s Tavern, spoke on his experience working with one particular stakeholder, Steve Sann, chair of the Westwood Community Council. Trifunovic claimed Sann obstructed his business and spoke against his business at a public hearing. He claimed the issues that his business faced were similar to Sepi’s.

Philip Gabriel, a Westwood stakeholder, called point of order several times while Trifunovic was speaking. A point of order is called to interrupt a councilmember while they are speaking.

Gabriel said specifically naming one stakeholder was improper and a violation of the Brown Act, which serves as the guiding principles of neighborhood council proceedings. Gabriel is not a council member, and is in fact not permitted to call point of order to interrupt a council member, said Gibson Nyambura, a representative from EmpowerLA, which oversees neighborhood councils.

Sepi’s also won a full liquor license from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, but was unable to apply the license to a new location, Crummy said.

“We’re all kind of guilty because we haven’t been speaking back and we’ve been letting the people speak for us,” Crummy said. “We need to change the specific plan so businesses feel like they can keep operating how they do. The point is that we want to keep a business, not lose them.”

Andrew Thomas, executive director of the Westwood Village Improvement Association, said Sepi’s situation exemplifies some of the problems businesses face in Westwood Village.

“Sepi’s, as our current specific plan is written, cannot operate their business in the manner that they have for the last 50 years if they moved down the street,” Thomas said. “To me, that tells us our plan is broken.”

Taylor Fife, a graduate student at UCLA Anderson School of Management and former WCC member, said he thought it was unfortunate that three community members have obstructed businesses in Westwood for years. Fife said Sann had lied to him on multiple occasions.

Sann said Trifunovic was not telling the truth and asked for documentation proving he had obstructed in the establishment of his business.

Nyambura called a recess, which led Michael Skiles, president of the council, to emphasize that no one should name specific stakeholders when discussing Sepi’s.

The board then discussed ways to prevent excessive filing of appeals to the city. Appeals are alteration requests filed with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning regarding subjects like property amenities, violations to city plans and conditions on operating.

Filing an appeal to the city costs the appellant $89 and the city $13,538, according to city documents. Sann was listed as filing nearly one-third of all appeals since 1998 in a city document NWWNC member Grayson Peters released Tuesday on Facebook.

Jane Gavens, a Westwood resident, said the cost each appeal incurs for the city concerns her as a taxpayer and that she believes there should be some type of limitation on appeals.

Bettina Omara, a board member of the Holmby Westwood Property Owners Association, said she believes there needs to be a process to alert the community and come to a consensus before a single community member makes an appeal.

Jack Lyons, a fourth-year political science student, played a recording of Sann allegedly speaking to Skiles after a Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting. Members of the board and audience said the recording indicated Sann filed frivolous appeals for personal reasons.

The recording was also released on YouTube by Peters as well as in a UCLA Radio broadcast Wednesday.

At the end of the night, three hours after the meeting began, the council passed a motion to recommend that Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Koretz, who represents Westwood and surrounding areas, amend the Specific Plan to remove the fast food restaurant distinction and quota and parking requirements, which the motion said impedes the growth of businesses in the Village.

The council also passed a motion to recommend creating a graduated scale for cost of appeals to disincentivize people from making appeals, while still considering financial hardship and the appellant’s involvement with the project.

Recent UCLA immunization policy change affects communication on measles outbreak

Yu Hong Hwang is vaccinated against measles. The fourth-year materials engineering student said the immunization records he sent to UCLA before coming to campus should have proved that.

However, last week he received two messages from the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center requesting his records and asking him to quarantine himself if he could not produce them. He said he was confused why the school did not already have his information on file.

UCLA was identified as a potential site for measles exposure April 22 after a UCLA student infected with measles attended classes in Franz Hall and Boelter Hall in early April. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health contacted more than 500 people who may have been exposed to the disease and quarantined 127 students and faculty members who could not verify their immunization history in time. All were cleared and released by Wednesday, said UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez.

UCLA began requiring new students to submit immunization records in 2016. However, multiple second-year students have said they were quarantined after UCLA told them they did not have their records on file.

The university currently does not have immunization records for about 25% of its student population, Vazquez said. Many fourth-year students were never required to submit immunization records, as the policy went into effect after they had already enrolled at UCLA.

As of 2018, any new student without the required immunizations, regardless of personal or religious concerns, could have their registration placed on hold unless they receive a medical exemption, according to the University of California Immunization Plan Policy. Students with vaccine allergies or those with compromised immune systems must submit a Medical Exemption Request Form.

After the student contracted measles early last month, Vazquez said staff took measures to gather proof of immunity from students they did not have vaccination records for.

UCLA reached out to all potentially at-risk students through the Ashe Center portal. If the students did not respond to the message, Vazquez said they made phone calls to the students, visited their university housing and made trips to their classrooms to intercept them.

Hwang said he originally did not open the first message because it did not seem urgent. The email only stated he had a secure message from the Ashe Center portal.

“I would’ve preferred a more direct message. Maybe they could have texted me or sent me an email directly,” he said. “I feel like I would’ve liked to be contact more directly. It did take me about a day to even check that thing.”

Hwang said he was lucky to have his information on hand, but feels it may not be common practice for people to carry around copies of their immunization records.

“My pediatrician asked us to hold onto (my yellow card), and I have held onto that so I have my immunization record with me,” he said. “I don’t know if many other students would have that with them.”

While Hwang had his immunizations, Angie Ghanem, an epidemiology graduate student, said some people choose not to get vaccinated for various reasons. A 1998 article published in the Lancet, for example, hypothesized that the measles, mumps and rubella shot may be connected to the development of autism. Though the journal retracted the article in 2010 because it was found to be incorrect, Ghanem said some people still have lingering fears about the safety of vaccines.

The two doses of measles MMR shots are live attenuated vaccines, meaning they contain a weakened form of the germs that cause the range of diseases. Ghanem said immunocompromised individuals are not safe to receive the injection.

Ghanem added the low immunization rates in the United States have caused a resurgence of diseases, such as measles, the country had previously eradicated.

“Vaccination levels were high enough that there were no cases even with people coming in from other countries, so it is pretty unfortunate that we are now seeing cases again,” she said. “It’s going to be a challenge for public health professionals to … try to get that immunization back up in communities that are much lower than desired.”

Pop-up review: WonderWorld’s display of whimsy lives up to world down the rabbit hole

WonderWorld, tucked under a shaded awning, invites visitors to enter a modern rabbit hole.

Hailing from New York, the Alice in Wonderland-themed pop-up takes inspiration from the fantastical elements of the classic tale and will be in Los Angeles until Aug. 31. Located on an unassuming street in West Hollywood, the pop-up at first resembles a quaint gift shop, alight with a pink glow and stuffed with fluffy critters. Upon entering the storefront, visitors pass through a simple entrance draped with an assortment of roses fit for the Queen of Hearts. With an appropriate first impression, WonderWorld succeeds in its adherence to a basic premise, providing a visually appealing interpretation of a familiar tale.

Past the rose-laden barrier, visitors enter a narrow, pink-striped hallway reminiscent of a Victoria’s Secret bag, meant to replicate Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole. While the hallway floor is garnished with small rabbit figurines, the ceiling immediately captivates the eye with myriad clear plastic spheres suspended in the air, each filled with bright feathers. The ceiling, obscured completely with cotton, creates a skylike effect – the artificial light filtered through the makeshift clouds is indistinguishable from natural sunlight.

The second room, with more of a modern take on the original tale, is aptly titled the Rainbow Room. The floor is painted in a widely arching pastel rainbow, divided by a curtain of flowers bisecting the room. One wall is laden with triangular mirrors, while the other forms a small seating area with multicolored pillows shaped as stars, hearts and paws. The room’s highlight, however, is the dabbing bear residing in the corner, constructed from green chicken wire and woven with roses. Though both the first and second rooms take creative liberties with the narrative of Alice in Wonderland, the first is more successful in applying a fresh take to a tired concept, while the second resembles a knockoff Claire’s.

Walking into the third room, visitors have a more explicit sense of the Alice in Wonderland theme. A giant teapot hangs from the wall above a teacup that doubles as a chair, complete with macaron cushions. Sporadically placed throughout the room are large blocks of cheese act as hiding apparatuses for younger visitors, whose time is ticked away by the oblong clock hanging on the adjacent wall. This room is the most interactive exhibit of the pop-up and by far the most fun, due to the larger-than-life teaspoons that can be picked up and twirled around.

Beyond the Mad Hatter’s tea party are several smaller rooms, one composed of mammoth mushrooms sprouting from the ground and another filled with translucent birds hanging from the ceiling. While the birds are prime for Instagram fodder, they suffer from having few other interactive aspects, easily tangled from visitors walking through them. The mushrooms, in contrast, are sturdy enough to climb atop and resemble a fanciful child’s playground.

Moving forward into the pop-up’s smallest rooms, the floor and walls suddenly dissipate into a black-and-white gridlike pattern reminiscent of a Mondrian painting. The blocks in the center of the room, also covered in the same pattern, are meant to be sat upon to give the illusion of floating. The concept, though intriguing in theory, does not translate as well to real life, as the viewer would need to be positioned into a highly specific angle to achieve the effect. An adjacent room, making use of a smaller closetlike space, is plated entirely with mirrors, providing a pleasing imitation of Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirror rooms.

In the back of the pop-up, the installation’s most popular room is calmly illuminated with the light of a crescent moon, sitting snugly within a ball pit filled with pink and purple balloons. These are contained within a rectangular, fountainlike pool, the sides of it laid with marble. The room, like much of the pop-up, is pastel pink and decorated with cartoon clouds. Though not innovative, the ball pit and its moon centerpiece more than make up for it.

The exit, a hedged-in room with string lights hanging down, resemble the overall experience of the pop-up: simple, but entirely effective in the visually pleasing effect it aims for. Each room evokes the nostalgia of childhood memories, creating a worthwhile experience for those who want one last trip down the rabbit hole.

Event discusses Jewish costume designers stitching together fabric of iconic films

Fashion designers leave their labels on their creations. But costume designers don’t have the same privilege, said Deborah Nadoolman Landis.

Landis, the founding director and chair of UCLA’s David C. Copley Center for Costume Design, will co-host “Jewish Thread: The Hidden History of Costume Design in Hollywood” alongside UCLA history professor Sarah Abrevaya Stein. The event, being held Sunday at the James Bridges Theater, will highlight both costume design’s history and the significance of Jewish individuals in the field, Stein said. Organized by UCLA’s Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies and the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design, the event will allow Jewish costume designers to discuss Judaism’s influence on their work.

“There are a lot of niches of modern culture that tend to gather particular ethnic groups for reasons that are quite complex,” Stein said. “This area of costume design is an area that Jewish artists and practitioners have gravitated towards, and we don’t know why.”

A Jewish costume designer herself, Landis said she conceived of the event when considering the significant number of Jewish colleagues in her field, wondering if it was a coincidence. Panelists will be asked about their cultural upbringing and what attracted them to costume design as a field.

One potential reason for strong Jewish influence in the field could be historical discrimination that the community has faced over years, Stein said. When they first started immigrating to America, they were turned away from many occupations in other industries and had to work marginal jobs, said Vincent Brook, a lecturer in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. But even within the entertainment industry, anti-Semitism has been prevalent, Brook said. For instance, “moguls,” the term commonly used to describe studio heads, is found to have anti-Semitic elements, according to Brook.

“Since the movies were not considered even a reputable industry, that was left open for (Jewish people),” Brook said. “They were in the right place at the right time and then, ironically, they were pushed into this industry by anti-Semitism in America.”

The long history of Jewish involvement with textiles and fashion, Stein said, can also be connected to costume design. Stein said some of Hollywood’s prominent Jewish costume designers have family members who immigrated to America and worked in the fashion industry. Once Jewish individuals became concentrated in the fashion industry, Stein said, family history could play a part in shaping the careers of future generations.

“We are interested in the trajectories these people took and the shape of their art,” Stein said. “(The goal of the event is) to lend a Jewish history to costume design and also to put this art form into the larger story of Jewish history, which has neglected it.”

Landis also said there may be a link between costume designing and the traditional Jewish profession of tailoring. Though this relationship has never been fully explored, Landis said she hopes the discussion will reveal answers to this question, while also exploring how being Jewish contributes to the point of view of costume designers.

Landis’ own love for costume design stemmed from her experience of growing up in Manhattan, New York, in a conservative Jewish home. Her parents took her to the theater from an early age, and she put on shows and made costumes for productions at her parents’ summer camp for deaf children.

“All of (the costume design panelists) are first-, second- and third-generation Americans,” Landis said. “We’ll talk about our life experiences, how we feel connected to our Jewish culture and how – and if – this connection has an impact on our work and our relationship with our job.”

Landis said she hopes the event will highlight her colleagues and the many Jewish founders of costume design, such as Adrian Adolph Greenberg. Greenberg dressed Dorothy in her iconic ruby slippers and blue dress for “The Wizard of Oz” but is largely unrecognized for his costume design work, Landis said. Landis herself has worked on characters like Indiana Jones, as well as Michael Jackson’s costume for his “Thriller” music video.

“Everyone knows who, for instance, Indiana Jones is, but I don’t know how many people … know that I created that character,” Landis said. “Our parents are very happy, because our parents know that we designed all these famous movies, but generally the general public doesn’t know.”

Audience members might not be aware of the panelists’ names but will likely be familiar with their works, Landis said. Through Sunday’s event, she hopes to spotlight Jewish influence on costume design, as well as reiterate the importance of the field, she said.

“Many of my colleagues are Jewish and amongst us we’ve made such an incredible impact on international popular culture,” Landis said. “It just seems like for such a niche profession, (Jewish designers) seem to have this overarching influence.”