Submission: UCLA community should sustain tobacco-free environment

Thursday is the 39th annual Great American Smokeout, when tobacco users nationally are encouraged to quit. It is also very close to the first anniversary of the University of California’s full implementation of its tobacco-free policy. UCLA was the first University of California campus to fully adopt a policy that creates a smoke- and tobacco-free […]

Aram Ghoogasian: USAC must vote ‘yes’ on divestment, consider consequences of inaction

Hundreds of students stood in two rows to voice their opinions on divestment until close to dawn at a student government meeting last February. Now our student government is gearing up for round two. This time the meeting will probably be over before the sun rises Wednesday morning, but tensions will still run high. At […]

Kunal Patel: California needs to address gap in education opportunity

When I was a first-year, I covered the Occupy protests that shut down Wilshire Boulevard. One of the prevailing themes of those protests was the disparity in the opportunities accessible to different socio-economic classes. I’m reminded of the heated rhetoric of the Occupy protests by information that’s been compiled by the nonpartisan organization Children Now, […]

Submission: State, administrators responsible for protecting affordability of UC

The rising cost of higher education is about to hit us all as students at the University of California. UC President Janet Napolitano proposed a plan last week to enact an up to 5 percent tuition increase annually for the next five years that will be felt across our student population, including undergraduate, graduate and […]

Natalie Delgadillo: UCLA should be upfront, create uniform policy on mental health issues

Next week is mental health awareness week. As universities across the country are navigating a series of crises regarding mental health and higher education – including a loss of funding for mental health resources due to the expiration of Proposition 63 in California and nationwide debate about involuntary psychiatric withdrawal policies – UCLA student government […]

Submission: Both sides of Israeli-Palestinian conflict must engage in dialogue

I believe each and every one of us has a story, a story worth sharing and a story worth being heard. So here is mine. I am an American Jew of Iranian descent. My parents fled from Iran in the 1970s following the Islamic Revolution. Many members of my family sought refuge here in the […]

Samah Pirzada: Circle of 6 safety app useful despite rough edges

The Undergraduate Students Association Council Internal Vice President’s office has accomplished a feat in moving a safety application called Circle of 6 to a UCLA-specific app development and marketing development stage. The app could make a huge difference for students in terms of sexual assault prevention and post-assault assistance. To be clear, the app is […]