Arthur Wang: TED talks must encourage discussion to avoid uncritical thinking

Everybody seems to love TED. The conference and its talks – in which topics such as innovation, creativity and learning are frequently discussed – have become well-regarded fountains of popular intellect. Yet not even the feel-good, do-good style of TED talks is above criticism. Criticism of TED, in fact, is nothing new. It’s been called […]

Submission: California sets example for US, pioneers gun violence prevention

On May 23, 2014, a mass shooting in Isla Vista occurred near the University of California, Santa Barbara. Six innocent lives were lost, and 14 others were wounded. Our hearts were broken once again. We were horrified, and we identified with the families and the young people who died. Their promising lives were stolen from […]

Chloe Lew: Campus safe spaces need expansion into classrooms

In the big, bad real world, there are no “safe spaces” – at least, that’s what the media has been warning college students lately. From The New York Times to Time, columnists have been condescendingly slamming college safe spaces for “coddling” and “infantilizing” our hypersensitive generation by letting students avoid uncomfortable truths. But here’s a […]

Zoey Freedman: Raising minimum wage not enough to meet high LA housing costs

Although some L.A. residents’ paychecks may be growing in size over the next five years, it may not end up making the kind of difference they need. On May 19, the Los Angeles City Council voted in favor of raising the minimum wage from the current $9 an hour to $15 an hour by 2020, […]

Submission: UC must protect Jewish students, combat anti-Semitism

Dear President Napolitano and the University of California Board of Regents, We are 521 University of California alumni who are deeply concerned about the safety of Jewish students at our alma mater. We heartily commend the UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara student senates for responding to the alarming escalation of anti-Semitic activity on […]

Arthur Wang: ‘Bloody Thursday’ defines lack of dialogue between UC, students

All of us cheered when Gov. Jerry Brown struck a “historic” deal with the University of California and its president, Janet Napolitano, freezing tuition increases for two years and promising annual 4 percent budgetary increases over the next four. But few of us, especially the student activists who were at the forefront of last year’s […]

Kunal Patel: Current UCLA outreach program inadequately serves women engineers

For as much effort as UCLA has put toward increasing its undergraduate diversity through outreach programs, one group of individuals – women in engineering – is consistently overlooked. It is quite troubling that as the field of engineering and its associated salaries have grown in the last few decades to contain many of the highest […]