Daily Bruin Grad Issue 2012: Part 1

DA ILY BRUIN

INSIDE: News [Section A, page 1] | Opinion [Section A, page 15] | Sports [Section B, page 1] | a&e [Section B, page 12] | Day in the Life [Section C]

Monday, June 11, 2012

Serving the University of California, Los Angeles community since 1919

Graduation Issue 2012

A Future Undocumented Students without proof of residency or legal documentation to work face legal hurdles, low job prospects following graduation

BY NICOLE CHIANG Bruin contributor nchiang@media.ucla.edu

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Among the mass of students waiting to hear their names read out during commencement on Saturday will be Carlos Hernandez.

As the undocumented student walks before the crowd at graduation and fixes his tassel, he will stand at the threshold of a future dulled by uncertainty.

The psychobiology student, who hopes to work in the medical field, does not have a job or internship waiting for him after college.

Hernandez has lived in the United States for more than 10 years, but without documentation, he is barred from legal employment.

He is one of many undocumented students who, despite moving to the country with their families to access better

opportunities, will soon find themselves with a degree and no job.

The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act requires people to provide a social security number or prove they are legally authorized to work in the United States, said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education.

“It’s a very challenging job market generally – for undocumented students it’s even worse,” Wong said. “Some will work in the underground economy, some will work in fast food, where frequently the requirement for showing documentation is much more lax.”

Hernandez is currently looking for a job. If he does not find one soon, he said he will have to postpone his plans for graduate school and move back to his home in Orange County.

“I feel a little lost,” Hernandez said.

Having relied on his parents to pay for

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his tuition for four years, Hernandez said he feels guilty about the sacrifices they made to allow him to attend UCLA. He does not know how he will get a job where he can live up to the degree he earned.

“I see how hard (my parents) work, and I want to be able to return the favor,” he said. “I need to be able to give back to them later on, no matter what.”

Hernandez, like many other undocumented students, said he has not been able to apply for citizenship because he is not related to any citizens who can petition for him.

The federal DREAM Act is one way these students may be able to get citizenship and legal employment, Wong said. The act would allow undocumented individuals to obtain legal status by completing two years of college or serving in the military.

The legislation did not pass in the Senate, but has emerged as an issue of

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DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | news | dailybruin.com/news

DAILY BRUIN MANAGEMENT James Barragan | Editor in Chief Andra Lim | Managing Editor Devin Kelly | Online Managing Editor Amy Sherrard | Art Director NEWS Naheed Rajwani | Editor Jillian Beck, Erin Donnelly, Emily Suh | Assistant Editors Alessandra Daskalakis | Science & Health Editor Kylie Reynolds | Enterprise Editor Alexia Boyarsky, Sonali Kohli | Staff OPINION Loic Hostetter | Editor Elizabeth Case, Ani Torossian | Assistant Editors Ramsey Ugarte | Staff A&E Lynn Chu | Editor Anneta Konstantinides, Colin Reid, Jessica McQueen | Assistant Editors Andrew Bain, Teresa Jue, Spencer Pratt | Staff SPORTS Steven Covella | Editor Emma Coghlan, Liz Schneider, Tyler Drohan | Assistant Editors Ryan Menezes, Chris Nguyen, Eric Peck, Jacob Ruffman, Mansi Sheth, Sam Strong | Staff DESIGN Kristen Fong | Director Sarah Kim, Maddie Kleinman, KellyAnne Tang | Assistant Directors Diana Huh | Illustration Staff GRAPHICS Jonathan Solichin | Editor PHOTO

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CORRECTIONS: • The article “Practicum challenges students” published on June 7 contained several errors. Dennis Mabasa and Anuraag Jhawar are environmental science students. The photo captions for the article also contained several errors. Environmental science students presented their senior capstone research on Eco-Certification programs for green hotels at UCLA’s Environmental Science Senior Practicum on Wednesday. Fourth-year environmental science students Jaryd Block, Brittney Laver and Dennis Mabasa presented on vegetation change in Rancho Sierra Vista in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area at the environmental science senior practicum presentations.

Corrections should be addressed to corrections@media.ucla.edu.

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The Metro 305 line travels daily through South Los Angeles. It will permanently shut down this month to make way for a new Expo light-rail line, forcing many commuters to find alternative routes.

Expo line changes bus routes

BY YANTING LI Bruin reporter yli@media.ucla.edu Early in the morning, the Metro 305 bus lumbers through South Los Angeles, picking up passenger Patricia Smith on her daily commute.

For 50 minutes, the orange bus zigzags northwest, carrying Smith straight from her home to UCLA, where she works as a faculty support services manager at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

But starting June 17, Smith will have to find an alternate mode of transport. The Metro 305 line will close permanently to accommodate a new Expo light-rail line that w ill run through Los Angeles, said Rick Jager, spokesman for L.A. Metro.

“The line is kind of staircased,” Jager said. “We have a lot of lines running east-west and north-south, so there was a lot of duplication of service.”

Financially, the line required a much higher subsidy than the other bus lines in the Metro system, he added.

Around 45 students and fac-

ulty at UCLA will be affected “There are other buses you when the line is discontinued, can take, but (with this line) you said David Karwaski, senior don’t have to transfer,” Smith associate director for planning, said. “Without this line, I’ll have policy and traffic systems for to take two buses – three if I UCLA Transportation. don’t want to walk.”

The direct nature of the line T he pla n ned Ex po l i ne, in bringing riders from South which runs east-west, will not Los Angeles to the Westside be as convenient for those who leaves riders with no compa- use the 305 line. Feeder buses rable alternative, will run to the Expo as there is no other line, but that will uninterrupted route still mean time-conWithout (the suming and costly from Westwood to the parts of South Metro 305), I’ll have transfers for riders, Los Angeles the 305 Karwaski said. to take two buses – Smith said taking covers.

For Smith, who three if I don’t want the bus is a lifestyle takes the bus Mon- to walk.” choice. day through Friday, W h i le she h a s the change means Patricia Smith a car, she said she losing the conve- Faculty support services prefers to take the nience and dependbus for environmenmanager, Anderson tal reasons, and also ability she has been accustomed to for to avoid driving to three years. Since one year ago, work in morning traffic. she has created two petitions She said she will miss the against Metro’s decision that camaraderie that has formed have made little headway – even with other riders on the bus. though others have signed and “People know each other,” presented them to Metro.

Smith said. “In the dark months, The change to the bus lines has been in the works for about BUSES | Page 3 a year, Jager said.

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dailybruin.com/news | news | Monday, June 11, 2012 | DAILY BRUIN

UNDOCUMENTED | Looking forward a must from page 1 debate in the upcoming presidential elections, he said.

Fifth-year anthropology student Linett Luna has been in the process of legalization since she was 10 years old.

“It’s an incredibly long process that can take up to 20 years,” Luna said. “It’s a waiting game, and everyone wants it, but I can’t afford to stop my life and just wait. I have to keep focusing on other things.”

After graduation, not only will she have trouble finding a job in her preferred field, education, but she must also find an employer who is OK with her undocumented status, Luna said. She is currently looking into various research programs that could employ her.

“I’m open about my status, and it doesn’t embarrass me, but a lot of doors have been closed because of it,” she said. “It’s limiting in many ways, which is frustrating when I feel like I haven’t done anything wrong.”

But Sofia Campos, a fifth-year international development studies and political science student, said she is not relying on the DREAM Act passing as her only pathway to a job.

She noted students have the option to work with limited liability corporations and independent contractors, or start their own businesses.

“It will push us to our limits, but we have to be more creative in how to go about getting jobs,” Campos said.

Campos is one undocumented student who does have work lined up after graduation.

She will be working as an unpaid intern with the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, where she will receive a $5,000 scholarship at the end of the summer, she said.

Postgraduation, some undocumented students plan to continue with their studies. Graduate school, however, requires additional expenses – and in some cases, a paying job.

One student encountering this situation is Edna Monroy, a fifth-year sociology and Chicana and Chicano studies student, who works as a fast-food employee to help pay for college. She said she is looking for better employment because she is tired of getting paid minimum wage.

She does not like the prospect of having to return to minimum wage jobs to pay for graduate school, she said, but acknowledges that her possibilities are limited.

“I need to move on career-wise,” Monroy said.

“I need a stable job to get through (graduate)

BUSES from page 2 in the winter, people kind of watch out for you.”

Other riders who take the line less frequently said they will also miss Metro 305 when it is gone.

Bryan Lee, a second-year undeclared student, said he

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Fourth-year psychobiology student Carlos Hernandez graduates this weekend. However, with an undocumented status, he faces grim job prospects.

school.”

Paying for graduate school is only one of the problems Leslye Osegueda faces, a third-year political science student who wants to go to law school in the fall.

Osegueda said she is concerned that even after attaining her law degree, the question of employment in her professional field of choice will remain.

“I can’t worry about everything right now, though,” she said. “I have to take things one step at a time.”

Likewise, Monroy said she can’t let her life revolve around the uncertainty of life after graduation.

“What if I can’t get a job and have to move back home, or I can’t pay for graduate school? What if my family gets deported?” Monroy said. “I can’t afford to constantly think about these ‘what-ifs.’”

takes the line twice a month to visit relatives in South Los Angeles.

“I don’t own a car, and this line is the most convenient by far,” he said.

To adjust to the line being discontinued, Lee said he will have to look into alternative routes, and perhaps make the journey to see his relatives less often.

And some riders have already

made changes in their commute. A handful have switched to the Metro 2, which has some route overlap.

When the Metro 305 pulled out of the Ackerman Union station early Tuesday afternoon, it was empty.

“I’m pretty committed (to this bus), but I have to accept it’s going to be cut,” Smith said. “I’ll have to make the adjustment, I just won’t like it.”

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DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | news | dailybruin.com/news

2008

Bruins invest in online petitions

UCLA:

2012

Change.org allows users to reach large audiences around the globe and obtain signatures efficiently

Over four years

BY KATHERINE HAFNER Bruin contributor khafner@media.ucla.edu

Japanese Garden signatures have collected thousands of signatures, from UCLA students and people across the country.

Advocati ng for a cause Other petitions have camthese days is just a click away. paigned to save the Saxon A widely used online social Steps near Gayley Avenue action website, Change.org, from demolition and salvage allows users to create and the Westwood location of Acasign online petitions on a pulco Mexican Restaurant and variety of subjects, including Cantina. the environment, politics and One petition asks Los Angelocal issues. In recent months, les district attorney Steve some petitions on the site have Cooley to hold UCLA accountgained international attention able for a lab fire in 2008 that and reached millions of signa- led to the death of a 23-yeartures, such as one created by old research assistant, a case the family of Trayvon Martin that is currently in litigation. petitioning law officials and The petition gained signatures the U.S. attorney general to from as far as Italy and Brazil, prosecute shooter George said Judith Sweeney, creator Zimmerman. of the petition and adminisMembers of the UCLA com- trative specialist in the UCLA munity are no strangers to the Department of Chemistry and website – a number of UCLA- Biochemistry. related petitions have sprung Each time a person signs up. a petition on “O n l i ne pet iCh a n ge.org, a tioning is a great (The admin- copy of a st a nresource because dard i zed petiit’s easy to spread istration) values tion letter is sent t h r o u g h s o c i a l all opinions and d i re ct ly t o t he media platforms (Change.org) is petitioned party l i ke Facebook – in this case, the one way for people and Twitter, and district attorney, we don’t have to to express them.” Sweeney said. intrude in people’s Getting the Steve Ritea r e q u i r e d nu m lives like on Bruin Walk,” said Kelsey UCLA spokesman ber of signatures, Ivan, a second-year however, is the environmental scifirst step. Petition ence student at UCLA and creators can then submit it to member of the Undergraduate the entity involved with the Students Association Council issue to encourage tangible Sustainability Committee. changes. Others choose to use Ivan started a petition on the petitions as an educational Change.org in February that tool. urges UCLA to become a susSteve R itea, a UCL A tainable, fair trade university. spokesman, said that while The petition, which is part of online petitions have fostered a larger effort by USAC, as of a medium for students to get press time had 297 signatures their voices heard, the concept out of a goal of 500. behind petitions has stayed Although USAC’s fair trade the same over the years. initiative has engaged in other “(The administration) valefforts including tabling and ues all opinions and (Change. fliering on campus, online org) is one way for people to petitioning has yielded more express them,” Ritea said. tangible results, Ivan said.

“But petitions themselves are Signing petitions online is nothing new – this is just one easier for all parties involved, way to circulate them.” which may explain why some Students who sign these petitions have received more petitions can track the initiasignatures online than they tive’s progress by returning would otherwise, said Michael to the site and monitoring the Suman, communication stud- number of signatures, whereies professor. as there is no real follow-up Petitions to fire UCLA Ath- with these efforts in real life, letic Director Dan Guerrero CHANGE | Page 7 and save the Hannah Carter

A look at how UCLA has changed since fall 2008 n*

$344 millio te a st om fr s d n Fu n $522 millio

*Amount of state funding available for campus operations after fiscal year adjustments

ate 90% r n o i t a u d 88% Gra

91,152

Average age of students

Number of applications to UCLA

Enrollment by ethnicity <1% American Indian/Alaskan Native 4% African American/black 38% Asian/Pacific Islander 15% Hispanic 34% white 5% unstated/unknown/other 4% international

Average age of students

Number of tuition increases since 2009

<1% 3% 34% 17% 32% 3% 7%

70,512

3

Total tuition increase since 2009

49.6%

Number of applications to UCLA

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nt 27,199

ollme 26,536 Enr

Enrollment by residency

4% increase in international students 4% decrease in students from California 1% increase in students from other states SOURCES: UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management, UCLA Office of Academic Planning and Budget, UC Office of the President Graphic reporting by Jillian Beck, Bruin senior staff. Graphic by Jessica Zerrudo, Bruin contributor.

Council approves Anderson proposal for self-sufficiency The vote in favor is a step toward the Master of Business Administration’s financial independence

BY ALEXIA BOYARSKY Bruin staff aboyarsky@media.ucla.edu A proposal to make the flagship program of the Anderson School of Management financially separate from state funding is now headed to University of California officials for review – the culmination of a three-year process that may set a precedent for funding UC graduate schools in the future.

On Thursday, the Legislative Assembly, a faculty group of the UCLA Academic Senate, voted 53 to 46 in favor of the proposal, with three abstentions.

As California’s public universities face unprecedented budget cuts and rising tuition, this new model is a potential solution to some of the problems.

Over the last 10 years, MBA student fees have almost doubled as a result of cuts in state funding, said Anderson Dean Judy Olian.

Under the proposal, the Master of Business Administration program would no longer rely on state funds which constitute 6 percent of the school’s total budget. Instead, the school would look to increased fundraising to make up for the gap in funding.

Not relying on state funds would protect the business

allow funds to be more easily directed to needy departments.

For example, funds could be used to supplement faculty school from the uncertainties salaries or create new programand fluctuations associated with ming, Lippman said. state funding, Anderson offiAbout 70 percent of Andercials said. son faculty voted in support of The funds that would no the proposal in December 2011. longer go to Anderson under But this March, the UCLA Acathe new funding model will be demic Senate’s Graduate Counreallocated to Chancil shot it down. cellor Gene Block’s In their review, office for redistributhe council raised There’s tion, according to the a number of connothing about the cer n s t hey h a d proposal. a b ou t t h e p r o program or the A three-year jour- system that will posa l, stressi n g ney uncertainties Initially put for- change.” about funding the ward in 2010, the proschool under the Judy Olian new model. posal marks the first Anderson dean A g r o u p o f time that a UC professional school’s largest Anderson faculty, program has requested to be however, submitted an appeal to financially self-supporting. this vote, leading to the review F ive ot her prog r a m s at by the Legislative Assembly.

Anderson, including the Fully The Assembly was the last Employed MBA program, are UCLA institution to vote on the already financially independent proposal. from state funds, Olian said.

The school introduced the Split opinions proposal as a way to increase The proposal has divided facflexibility with funds generated ulty in the three years since it by its MBA program, Olian said. was introduced.

The proposal would allow While Anderson administhe school to better compete trators see the proposal as a with private business schools solution to some budget probacross the country, said Steven lems, some faculty members Lippman, an Anderson profes- have expressed concerns about sor who has been a strong pro- potential implications of the ponent of the proposal. plan.

Officials also say the flexibilThe Graduate Council voted ity afforded by the changes will down the proposal in March

September 2011 – UCOP adopts policy on graduate self-supporting programs.

SOURCE: Daily Bruin archives Graphic reporting by Alexia Boyarsky, Bruin staff.

Graphic by Stephen Stewart, Bruin reporter.

partly because it may not fit under a UC policy for creating self-sustaining programs, according to a report from the council.

According to a policy adopted by the UC Office of the President in September 2011, programs that apply to become selfsupporting must fall into at least one of four categories, such as catering to non-traditional students or being held off-campus.

Olian said the MBA program’s students can be classified as nontraditional because they are generally older, and further along in their careers or international.

“If you compare our (MBA) student population to the rest of the graduate student body and to our other self-sustaining programs, unequivocally our (MBA) students resemble the self-sustaining programs more than the rest of the student body,” she said.

Rachael Goodhue, chair of the UC Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs, said she cou ld not com ment on whether or not the Anderson proposal would qualify under the UC self-sustaining policy because she has not formally seen the proposal.

In addition to concerns about UC policies, faculty have argued Anderson’s move would mark a symbolic break from the UC system.

Anderson professor Avanidhar Subrahmanyam said he is

worried the business school’s move away from state funding would imply public schools do not need state support.

“I think it sends the wrong message to the (state) legislature,” Subrahmanyam said.

“The symbolic aspect of it is more important than the financial aspect – it’s symbolizing that we can make it on our own without the state’s help.”

Olian said, however, the proposal is not intended as a separation from the university.

She said it would be “foolish” to alienate the university – UCLA has brought benefits to the Anderson school, including an international name brand.

Some faculty have said the shift could alienate prospective students in the form of tuition increases, a possible by-product of a break from state funding.

“We lose students to other universities with lower fees,” said Chris Tang, an Anderson professor. “If we’re not careful, in the long run (raising fees) could have a detrimental effect on the school.”

Olian disputed views that tuition will automatically spike, saying that fluctuating state support has roughly doubled fees in the past decade. Full control over tuition w ill be included in the proposal, which is expected to help, rather than hurt, student fees, Olian said.

The Anderson school has recently received pledges for several large donations that

December 2011 – Anderson faculty approves the proposal.

submitted to Chancellor Block.

would help counter state funds no longer directed to the school.

Donors have pledged $19 million in endowments that will go to the business school if the proposal passes the UC Office of the President, Olian said.

Looking forward The UC Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs will now review the proposal before it goes to the Office of the President.

If approved, the proposal would enter a three-year trial run. At that point, it would be reviewed again by the Graduate Council of the UCLA Academic Senate.

How quickly the proposal can be approved and put in place will depend on UC President Mark Yudof’s review, but Olian said she hopes to begin implementing the new system as early as July 1.

“There’s nothing about the program or the system that will change,” she said. “It’s a very easy budgetary change to implement.”

Subrahmanyam, who opposed the proposal in the past, said it is now important for all Anderson professors to support the new funding system if implemented.

“It’s extremely important that we accept the outcome and move forward,” he said.

“An initiative like this can’t be successful unless the faculty is behind it.”

May 3 – Anderson faculty appeal the Graduate Council vote.

March 16, 2012 – The Graduate Council votes against the proposal.

June 7, 2012 – Legislative Assembly votes to approve the proposal.

dailybruin.com/news | news | Monday, June 11, 2012 | DAILY BRUIN

Reforming the UC financial system Disparities in state funding for each university will be treated under a new budget model starting July 1

BY DEVIN KELLY Bruin senior staff dkelly@media.ucla.edu A n undergraduate at UC Santa Cruz or UC Riverside ends up being funded at a lower level than an undergraduate at UCLA after University of California administrators distribute money from the state across campuses. The reason why is a bit of a mystery.

Years of funding imbalances, based on how quickly campuses have grown, have led to a system of differential state funding among University of California campuses. The disparities, UC and UC Academic Senate officials say, have raised questions about transparency and fairness.

Nathan Brostrom, the executive vice president of business operations in the UC Office of the President, said he became critical of how the Office of the President distributed state funds while serving as vice chancellor for administration at UC Berkeley.

“There was no real rationa l way of expla i n i n g how state funds were allocated,” Brostrom said.

Smaller UC campuses have been keenly sensitive to the variances in funding allocations, and calls to level the playing field have mounted. A year ago, Brostrom and Lawrence Pitts, provost and executive vice president for academic

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and restore UC’s funding, it’s imperative that the state understands what we’re doing with state money,” said Jim Chalfant, affairs, convened a task force to a member of the Rebenching hammer out a new methodology Task Force and a professor of for doling out state funds. agricultural and resource ecoUnder the current system, nomics at UC Davis. each campus receives a budUC San Francisco, which get of state funds that amounts only enrolls graduate students, to an uneven level of funding and UC Merced, currently too per student across campuses. small to merit rebenching, will UCL A received be treated separateclose to $400 milly u nder the new lion in state funds budget model.

It’s imperathis year, accordAnticipated ing to recent data tive that the state increases in state p r o v i d e d b y t h e understands what funding to the UC UC Of f ice of t he we’re doing with will be the source of President, in part to rebenching money fund its health sci- state money.”

– t he model w i l l ences operations. operate on a do-noJim Chalfant harm principle, and By comparison, UC Rebenching Task no cuts will be takRiverside received $154 million and UC Force member ing place, Brostrom Santa Cruz received said. While UCLA about $117 million. will not receive lower funding, What the task force has come Brostrom did acknowledge that up with is a new budget model the Los Angeles campus will known by faculty and adminis- not benefit from the reform trators as “rebenching,” which as significantly as the smaller will formally tie state funding campuses. to enrollment numbers. Under The outcome of a vote on the new system, the amount Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiaof state general funds allo- tive on the November ballot cated for each California resi- could throw a wrench in the dent undergraduate will be the gears of the rebenching process same, regardless of the campus. entirely, however. If Brown’s The model is currently expect- tax measure fails, the UC will ed to be implemented over a be hit with a $250 million “trigsix-year period starting July 1. ger” cut.

Proponents say the effort It’s h i g h ly u nclea r what sends a positive message at a will happen if deeper cuts are time when state support is slip- imposed by the state, Brostrom ping and taxpayer support is said. He added that officials increasingly crucial. hope to implement the new “If we want to make the model as quickly as possible. state be a full partner again Between now and Novem-

ber, the plan is to rally behind the positive message of funding all California undergraduates at the same level in an effort to show taxpayers how their money is being spent, Brostrom said.

“It’s the first step, but not the last step,” Brostrom said.

Negotiations are still underw ay to deter m i ne speci f ic details. Funding health sciences or graduate students costs more than funding undergraduates, and the new system will need to account for the differences, Chalfant said.

UC officials also ultimately plan to incentivize campuses to maintain enrollment of California resident undergraduates through rebenching, Brostrom said.

Officials have described the new model as the second part of an ongoing systemwide budgetary reform effort. Last year, UC adopted a new set of principles governing non-state funds.

Each campus now keeps the revenue it generates, including resident and nonresident tuition. The first step in reform addressed non-state funds, where rebenching addresses state general fund allocations, Chalfant said.

Susa n Gi l l m a n, cha i r of the UC Santa Cruz Academic Senate and a member of the Rebenching Task Force, has s p o ke n f r e q u e n t l y a b o u t rebenching in speeches and written correspondence. Gillman said it is important for administrators to focus on the needs of the entire University system at a time when concerns

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State funding per UC campus Los Angeles $398 million Davis $312 million Berkeley $282 million San Diego $236 million Irvine $193 million San Francisco $186 million Riverside $154 million Santa Barbara $122 million Santa Cruz $116 million Merced $72 million

State funds include State General Funds at all campuses and State Specific Funds at UC Merced.

“State-supportable” enrollment San Francisco 3,784 Merced 4,765 “State-supportable” enrollment is the 2011-2012 Santa Cruz 16,060 budgeted enrollment of all Riverside 17,878 California resident Santa Barbara 21,480 students at all levels, plus San Diego 27,434 nonresident graduate Irvine 27,444 enrollments, in state-supported programs.

Davis 29,390 Berkeley 31,376 Los Angeles 35,672 SOURCE: UC Office of the President Graphic reporting by Devin Kelly, Bruin senior staff.

Graphic by Jonathan Solichin, Bruin senior staff.

have been raised about increasing fragmentation.

She pointed to an Academic Senate report stating that the “cost of a UC-quality education is the same on every campus,

and the campuses should be funded accordingly.”

“It’s the most important single thing the UC can and will

REBENCHING | Page 9

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DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | news | dailybruin.com/news

Alumni stay behind to work full-time as UCLA staff Even though she was pursued by a company based in San Francisco to organize their events a few years back – with hires recent graduates as staff a salary increase – she decided but knows about 15 people in to decline the job and stay at Housing who also stayed after UCLA. “I just wasn’t ready to graduation. leave (UCLA),” Quinn said.

Since then, Quinn has risen Her close relationship with through the ranks and is now fellow employees and students, the associate resident director the good benefits and her conof UCLA Housing and Hospital- tinuous promotions were among ity Services. her reasons for staying with S h e h a s a f fe c t i o n a t e l y Housing. ter med hersel f At a t i me w hen one of the “lifers” graduating seniors at the university were mov i n g away for neglecting to a nd star ti n g new It’s been fully transition out great being here. chapters, conti nuof her university. ing an undergradu“We’re the odd ... It keeps me ate lifestyle at UCLA ones out for stay- young.” after graduation i n g her e,” s a id didn’t pose a problem Dan Les to Quinn. She said the fellow “lifer” Dan L e s, t he d i re c - Director of budget and transition from a stutor of budget and financial planning dent into adulthood financial planning was relatively easy. for UCLA Housing “My life didn’t sudand Hospitality. denly change drastically,” she Les’ own friends moved on said. “It just happened that with after graduation, but he said it my good friends – well, we just becomes normal to see people all moved to Brentwood.” fade away over the years.

Almost 10 friends lived withIt did not take Quinn long in a few blocks of each other, to realize that she wanted the letting the social life of college job that was meant to keep her continue post-graduation. afloat after college to become a She joked that she and her permanent career in the UCLA friends finally started growing housing department. She said up as everyone started movshe saw all her friends struggle ing on with their lives and away with job hunting and did not feel from the Village. the need to stress about finding She f i n a l ly moved aw ay a new job when she was happy from Brentwood last year and with Housing and Hospitality. recalled the move as bitter-

Most seniors are ready to say goodbye to campus life, but these former Bruins can’t get enough of it

BY NICOLE CHIANG Bruin contributor nchiang@media.ucla.edu Sarah Quinn has been eating dorm food for more than 10 years.

She swipes herself into Covel dining hall or Bruin Café on a daily basis with the same student identification number she was assigned 11 years ago.

Although her Bruin Card has been lost and replaced over the decade, she has been at UCLA as both a student and an employee.

“I will never forget that number,” said Quinn, laughing.

She visited the cafe so regularly since the cafe opened in 2005 that they have her coffee order memorized, she added.

Quinn came to the Hill as a first-year student in the fall of 2001, and soon joined the staff at the Dykstra-De Neve front desk.

When Quinn graduated with a degree in history in 2005, a position for assistant resident ha l l ma nager conven iently opened up, she said.

It was a convenient job given her past experience, and she was extremely lucky that it was available to her when she graduated, she said.

Qu i n n said she does not know how frequently housing

sweet.

“It’s the cycle of life: People move on,” Les said.

Les has worked at UCLA for more than 30 years since he graduated as an economics student in 1981.

O ver the yea rs, Les has seen the area transform from a quaint, pastoral town into a more urban center, he said.

“It’s been great being here, both as a student and employee,” Les said. “It keeps me young.”

Being able to work around students made the transition to a full-time job easier, he said.

Some students stay on at the university as employees only temporarily. Keli Arslancan graduated winter quarter with a degree in art and history and stayed with the university in the Community Programs Office.

Graduating mid-year, the transition was not hard and most notably, she enjoyed being more actively involved in the programs her office helps organize.

But she plans to leave after next year to pursue a career in arts education.

Les and Quinn also plan to remain here for a while longer.

“Even though I really like being an employee, I miss having the careless lifestyle of a student – being able to take naps in the sculpture garden and not care,” Quinn said with a laugh.

With many students deep

COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY: THE PLANNING STAGES Besides chairs, lecterns and diplomas, commencement ceremonies require months of planning and many different components. Here is a look at what it took to put together the College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony this year:

$171,433 + $0 Permanent Budget

Central Ticket Office Payroll for staff

UCLA Offices

UCLA Events Office Undergraduate Education Administration College Academic Counseling Communications & Public Outreach Facilities: Grounds/Custodial Central Ticket Office Cultural & Recreational Affairs Athletics Performing Arts Police Department Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Transportation & Parking Services Fleet & Transit Services Alumni Relations UCLA Student Media

16 18

into studying for finals, Quinn said she also appreciates being one of the few people on the Hill who do not have to worry about schoolwork.

“It stays interesting here.

Every day is different; each

incoming class (of students) is different,” she said.

“UCLA keeps changing, and I get to witness all of it.”

Contributing reports by Erin Donnelly, Bruin senior staff.

The Bruin experience in six words

Supplies

Cost of Tickets for Guests

ASUCLA Catering

BRUIN

The Daily Bruin asked graduating seniors for a six-word memoir about their UCLA experience.

Bruins responded with emails, tweets and Facebook messages.

Division of Undergraduate Education

UCLA Events Office

STEPHANIE SON/ DA I LY

Sarah Quinn has worked at UCLA since graduating in 2005. She uses the same student identification number she was assigned nearly 11 years ago.

Enough happiness to last a lifetime. Travis Fuller Found: education, independence,

External Companies

The Sign Language Company The Corner Bakery Design and Printing AAA Flag & Banner Off Campus nurse Green Set JPS Auntie M So Cal Sanitation Sunbelt Rentals Yale Chase Steeldeck Classic Party Rentals Contemporary Services Arrowhead Waters Dozar Colornet Press Swayzers

calling, sexuality, self.

Nic Nelson

Great knowledge, love, friends, opportunities, prestige!

Kathy Phuong Ngyuen

don’t forget where you came from. @kevdelca

poli sci major, no Friday class.

Scott Saloman

NUMBER OF PEOPLE INVOLVED 3 from UCLA Events Office 10 from UC Regents, Alumni Association Board, UCLA Foundation Board members, donors 70 from the College Commencement Planning Team, volunteers, faculty, administrators !"#$%&100 from other campus departments

419 acres, measureless adventure, forever home. Ethan Scapellati She hoped. She jumped. She flew.

11,950

4,782

Guest tickets reserved

Students who will walk the stage

4,670 Chairs 100 Plywood 180 Barricades 39 Stage pieces

Each icon represents 10

1,300 sq ft of Astroturf

2,840 sq ft of blue carpet

Commencement Day 5 days to setup

|

Tina Ngo

I found culture, community, and myself. Linzy Bingcang amazing, unforgettable experiences + horrible parking = UCLA Jasmine Shah

Begin planning for next year

SOURCE: Betty Glick, Division of Undergraduate Education Graphic reporting by Naheed Rajwani, Bruin senior staff. Graphic by Jonathan Solichin, Bruin senior staff.

To submit your own six-word memoir, email it to online managing editor Devin Kelly at dkelly@ media.ucla.edu with the subject line “Six Words.”

We’ll publish submissions online until June 18.

dailybruin.com/news | news | Monday, June 11, 2012 | DAILY BRUIN

7

CHANGE | Ease of signing online petitions attracts public from page 4 said Allie Simpson, a fourth-year international development studies student.

Simpson said she learned about several petitions through friends and social networking websites like Facebook. After seeing the petition for USAC’s fair trade initiative on her Facebook newsfeed, she clicked the “sign” button.

Simpson said online petitions are more effective at spreading information because the results can be more easily viewed by the people participating.

She said she has also been informed on various issues through reading about them online, and tends to trust the online sources more.

“We get so many requests on Bruin Walk it’s hard to tell what’s legitimate and what’s not,” she

said. “But when you see it online and see that it’s something you believe in, you trust it more.”

Simpson said she cannot remember a time when she ever signed a paper petition out on campus, but remembers signing at least three online.

Alyssa Curran, a third-year geography/environmental studies student, has signed about 70 petitions in total on Change.org, on a variety of topics including

gay rights, human trafficking and the environment. She said she believes in the power of the petitions to actually make a difference.

“The hope is definitely there that if we get thousands of signatures, people in charge will take notice,” Curran said. “But realistically it is more in the focus of awareness, and then it is for students to take it upon themselves to do more.”

We fit in your pocket.

Visit dailybruin.com/m to access our mobile website.

8

DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | news | dailybruin.com/news

dailybruin.com/news | news | Monday, June 11, 2012 | DAILY BRUIN

9

Psychology professor leaves Princeton to teach at UCLA

BY JINGXI ZHAI Bruin contributor jzhai@media.ucla.edu Beach volleyball, warm weather and Diddy Riese cookies. These are some of the things a displaced Californian professor misses during cold winters in New Jersey.

Daniel Oppenheimer, an associate professor of psychology, will soon leave his tenured position at Princeton University to return to his hometown and teach at UCLA for the upcoming school year.

Since he started teaching in New Jersey eight years ago, Oppenheimer has been homesick.

“I always felt like an outsider in a temporary location,” he said. “I’m a fourth-generation Californian.”

A three-hour time difference may not seem like much, but Oppenheimer said it makes it tricky to stay in contact with the people he cares about.

“By the time they get off work, it’s time for me to go to bed,” he said.

Oppenheimer received tenure at Princeton University and was appointed to teach and research at the university’s psychology department and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Oppenheimer’s new tenured position at UCLA will be a joint appointment in the psychology department and the Anderson School of Management.

While Oppenheimer acknowledges that the University of California system is going through a tough economic

time, he said the budgetary concerns could serve as motivation for improvement.

“Schools like Princeton or Stanford are not forced to change because of budgetary reasons,” he said. “But UCLA has to change, and it is always exciting to be at the forefront of change.”

Aimee Drolet, a professor of marketing at Anderson, said a number of faculty retired or went to other schools this year, leav ing an opening for Oppenheimer to apply.

Craig Fox, chair of the committee that made the recommendation to faculty to vote on Oppenheimer’s appointment, said the Anderson faculty approved him with enthusiasm.

“When I heard we were going after him, I was thrilled,” said Fox, professor of policy at Anderson and psychology at UCLA. “He’s a young star and one of the most talented psychologists under 40.”

Oppenheimer said he thought UCLA hired him because of his uncommon work in the field of judgment decisionmaking.

The field focuses primarily on why people make certain decisions, Oppenheimer said. It then focuses on strategies of decision-making and finds ways to fix any flaws, he added.

Oppenheimer brought his methods of research to the field of metacognition, how one’s own knowledge affects cognitive thinking. Oppenheimer said that researchers used to believe if something is easier to process, it is also easier to make a judgment. But Oppenheimer’s research found that if you put logic problems in a font that is

harder to read, people are actually able to solve more problems.

At Princeton, Oppenheimer won the 2011 President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, an award welldeserved, said Abigail Sussman, a fourth-year graduate student of psychology in Oppenheimer’s lab at Princeton.

“He has a special way of making it fun whenever you work with him that you never realize just how much you’ve learned,” she said. “He’s also a big fan of traditions. All of his graduate students have to draw him a hippo before we graduate.”

Oppenheimer said that the hippo drawings are his way of remembering all of his students. The hippos reflect the students’ personalities in some way, he said.

“Academia is so emotionally difficult where you spend four years getting to really bond with someone, and then they’re gone,” he said. “But (the hippo drawings) represents them, and when I look back I will know who they are and remember them.”

Oppenheimer said he plans to stay at UCLA and make his mark on campus.

“I’ve always dreamed that I would find a school to teach at and stay there the rest of my life,” he said. “I still have that dream, and I’d like that school to be UCLA.” After an almost 3,000-mile road trip to Los Angeles, what is the first thing Oppenheimer will do?

“First? Probably sleep,” he said. “But after that, Diddy Riese.”

REBENCHING | Budget modifications, progress still kept out of public eye from page 5 do now and into the future,” Gillman said.

The effort has so far been kept out of the public eye, however. No formal statement about rebenching has emerged from the Office of the President, to the dismay of some who have played a role in drafting the new policies.

On May 29, Bob Anderson, the chair of the Academic Council, sent a letter to UC President Mark Yudof urging the Office of the President to make the progress of the Task Force public.

Brostrom said the muted publicity is linked to the process of working through concerns that have been raised by different campuses.

“We’re really trying to work through all of the different permutations of all of us,” Brostrom said, adding that he hopes to release a statement “very soon.”

In a joint statement, Steve Olsen, the UCLA vice chancellor of finance, budget and capital programs, and Andrew Leuchter, chair of the UCLA Academic Senate, acknowledged their involvement but declined to discuss details about UCLA’s role in the pro-

cess.

“The overriding objective is to ensure that any funding-allocation formula serves UCLA’s top priority of maintaining the highest quality academic programs for our students,” according to the statement.

The changes must first be approved by Yudof, who has discretion to alter details, such as the time frame, before the implementation process begins, Brostrom said. The final task force report on the topic is also pending.

Contributing reports by Alexia Boyarsky, Bruin staff.

C O U RT E SY O F

DANIEL OPPENHEIMER

Daniel Oppenheimer, a tenured professor of psychology at Princeton University, will be leaving New Jersey to return to his hometown of Los Angeles to teach at UCLA.

10

DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | news | dailybruin.com/news

Passions in Practice

SCIENCE & HEALTH

Grad student fills life with birds Bruin facilitates Tolkien course

Kathryn Peiman, a doctorate candidate, travels around the world to pursue her lifelong passion

BY AISLINN DUNNE Bruin contributor adunne@media.ucla.edu

in the field begins at sunrise, when the birds are most active.

“Almost anyone who studies birds is up at dawn,” Peiman K ath r y n Pei ma n paused said. during her story about capIn past trips, she has had to turing wild seabirds off the catch, measure and put identiHawaiian coast and pointed fying bands on the legs of the to a set of scars on the back of birds in question to be able to her hand. observe and recognize them “This one’s from an alba- throughout her study. tross chick, this one’s from a Pei man is currently booby,” she said. researching aggressive interFor Peiman, a third-year actions between different bird graduate student in species, specifically the UCLA Departbetween the thickment of Ecolog y billed vireo and the Almost and Evolutionar y white-eyed vireo.

Biology, the scars anyone who stud- T h e s e t w o b i r d are not souvenirs of ies birds is up at species spend six a one-time adven- dawn.” months out of the ture, but rather the year liv ing in the marks of a lifelong Kathryn Peiman sa me a rea of the passion.

Third-year graduate Caribbean.

Peiman, who has Mo s t r e se a r c h student o n a g g r e s s i o n spent the past three yea rs pu rsu i n g a between species is doctorate at UCLA, said that conducted during the breedshe has always liked birds, and ing season, but Peiman’s study has been interested in animal observes the birds during the behavior since she was a kid. non-breed i n g season, sa id “I want to know why (ani- Greg Grether, Peiman’s adviser mals) do what they do,” Pei- and a professor in the UCLA man said.

Department of Ecology and Peiman travels to the Baha- Evolutionary Biology. mas and Mexico twice a year “I didn’t want mates to be for up to three months at a time a part of it,” said Peiman, who to study birds in their natural wanted to make sure that any habitat. Her research at UCLA aggression shown by the birds focuses on bird behavior. was not a result of the mating Working out of cabins and season. field stations, a typical day To test how aggressive the

Fourth-year student’s spring seminar focused on thematic elements in ‘The Lord of the Rings’

BY KATE PARKINSON-MORGAN Bruin senior staff kparkinsonmorgan@ media.ucla.edu

NEIL BEDI/ DA I LY

BRUIN

Kathryn Peiman, third-year graduate student in the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, travels to study birds.

birds were acting toward each other, Peiman tried her hand at taxidermy. After learning how to stuff and mount her own specimens from a taxidermist

at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, she placed the stuffed animals in

PEIMAN | Page 11

SCIENCE & HEALTH

Forming comedic bonds through stand-up Chemistry graduate student mixes zeal for serious studies, dedication to hilarious hobby

BY GOLMAH ZARINKHOU Bruin contributor gzarinkhou@media.ucla.edu By day, she studies and teaches chemistry, but by night, Robin Higgins commands the audiences of bars and clubs with her humor.

Robin Higgins said she chose to attend graduate school at UCLA because of its appealing chemistry program.

But she said a different factor also weighed heavily on her decision: Los Angeles’ reputation as one of the biggest stand-up comedy cities in the country.

Despite the over-40-hour work week as a first-year graduate student and organic chemistry teaching assistant, Higgins spends four nights out of seven frequenting open mic nights in the city, including in neighborhoods like Westwood and Hollywood.

Higgins said science intrigues her because of the need to think both critically and outside the box. But hours spent memorizing textbook facts grow dry. That’s where comedy comes in.

“It’s good to have a breath of fresh air,” she said. “It feels like each one is a break from the other.”

Mainly comedians attend the open mic nights, which allows her to practice in front of them before doing a comedy show.

“Comedians are jaded and not going to laugh easily,” she said. “But if a joke still works, you know it’s good.”

In between previous performances at open mic nights, Higgins met other comedians from UCLA and proposed a way for them to continue performing back on campus.

In the fall, she founded the Stand-Up at UCLA club, which hosts regular shows in the Kerckhoff Coffeehouse. The comedy shows have grown popular enough that Los Angeles comedians now ask for stage time,

Higgins said.

With an index finger and thumb pressed against her chin, Higgins seemed thoughtful, even when describing fellow comedians.

She said Chris Rock impresses her with his ability to infuse serious opinions into his routines, and she hopes to hone the same skill when blending science and comedy.

Higgins tackles comedy in the analytical way she approaches everything in life, said Sharon Higgins, her mother.

Sharon Higgins added that even though her daughter showed interest in creativity and humor from a young age, it took a very long time for her to enter the field.

“I didn’t view myself as a funny person,” Robin Higgins said about her younger years.

“I viewed myself as a person who liked funny things.”

She dipped her toes in the world of comedy by editing a humor magazine as an undergraduate at Emory University.

And now, some of her stand-up performances are available on YouTube.

In her videos, Higgins plays the ukulele and asserts her nerdiness by explaining how she once spotted a spider in lab and considered allowing it to bite her. She also dissects the appeal of male superheroes as potential lovers in her act.

“I can spot a crier from a mile away,” she said about Batman.

She much prefers Ironman.

As Higgins alternates between the stage and the classroom, her jokes adjust accordingly.

On the first day of chemistry discussion, she usually hints at her humor and tells her students the only type of dog allowed in a lab is a Labrador.

“She is different on YouTube than she is in classes,” said Steven Hardinger, a UCLA organic chemistry professor. “I couldn’t repeat her jokes on BruinCast.”

Sitting in his office, Hardinger said Higgins, his teaching assistant, feels tempted to steal his jokes about Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

“It occurred to me the other day that their alarm system doesn’t work very well,”

AGNIJITA KUMAR/ DA I LY

BRUIN

Graduate student and organic chemistry teaching assistant Robin Higgins founded the Stand-Up at UCLA Club, which hosts comedy shows in Kerckhoff Coffeehouse.

he said as Higgins laughed.

The pair discussed the bears’ marital problems as indicated by their separate beds before moving on to criticize “The Simpsons” and praise “The Big Bang Theory.”

Higgins said she would love to create her own comedy television program similar to “The Big Bang Theory,” but her geniuses would be slacker scientists.

From his swivel chair, Hardinger said she should call it Slackers, or USC, with the S standing for “slackers.”

Higgins said she needs more time to decide what her specific goals will be after graduating from the chemistry program.

Lecturing like Hardinger has great appeal, but so does finding unconventional ways of mixing science and comedy.

“There are a lot of options in the future,” Higgins said.

of those attitudes still exist in academia,” he said.

But Geib’s application to the program was accepted, and his seminar reached its en rol l ment cap the sa me It was Cody Geib’s first day day as the enrollment period teaching at UCLA. began.

“I was incredibly nervous,” “We’re part of a generaGeib said. “I mean, you have tion that is falling in love with all these eyes just staring at Tolkien’s work all over again, you.”

I think in part because of When Geib looked out at the widespread appeal of the his classroom, the 20 pairs of movies,” Geib said. “Students eyes staring back at him were love it when we get to discuss not only his students, but also a popular topic in an academhis peers. ic format because it validates Over the course of one aca- our popular interests.” demic year, Geib, a fourthOne of Geib’s students, year Engl ish student and fourth-year English student former Daily Bruin staffer, Evan Manzanetti, is a selfdesigned and taught the cur- proclaimed Lord of the Rings riculum for a weekly spring nerd. quarter seminar called “One “I read it for the first time Course to Rule Them A ll: in sixth grade and I’ve lost Exploring J. R. R. Tolkien’s count of how many times I’ve ‘The Lord of the Rings.’” read it since,” he said.

Nine weeks into the quarManzanetti said he was ter and Geib stands at the concerned about how Geib blackboard listening intently would approach the class – to a student. The student but not because Geib is a stuexplains how Frodo, one of dent. the protagonists of the trilogy, “It was just really vital that sometimes wears the ring to he was passionate about Lord avoid the unfriendly gaze of of the Rings,” Manzanetti his peers. said. “I wanted the treatment The motif of an all-seeing of the text to be serious, not eye is woven throughout “The gimmicky.” Manzanetti added Lord of the Rings.” Although that he quickly realized that Geib said he initially shared Geib treats “The Lord of the Frodo’s sense of unease at Rings” like a sacred text. being looked at by so many Once Geib starts talking people, he no longer feels about Tolkien it’s hard to get uncomfortable in front of his him to stop. class of 20.

Geib reca l led one pa rGeib tra nsitions easi ly ticular class when a student between directing a discus- asked him why the character sion of the novel’s thematic of Gandalf said, “You shall not elements and writing down pass,” in the movie instead of possible essay topics on the the novel’s version, “You canboard. In a week, he will face not pass.” In response, Geib the challenge of not only writ- launched into a long-winded ing final papers, ex pla nation of but also grading Tolkien’s obsesthem – 18, to be sion with philolWe’re part exact. ogy, the study of G e i b s a i d a of a generation h istor ica l la nc h a l l e n g e w a s that is falling in love guage. exactly what he with Tolkien’s work “I think I lost w as look i n g for some students in when he applied to all over again.” that discussion,” the UndergraduGeib said, laughCody Geib i ng. “But then I ate Student InitiFourth-year English r e a l i z e d h o w I at ed Educ at ion prog ra m, wh ich student could simplify my t r a i ne d h i m t o ex pl a n at ion for teach the seminar. His intent the next class.” was to share his literary love Geib said he thinks the fact of “The Lord of the Rings” that he is a student made his with other students, especial- peers less hesitant to give him ly those who were not English feedback about his teaching students. style.

The program, which began “Students will frequently in 2005, allows third- and talk to me after class and tell fourth-year students to teach me what worked and what a lower-division seminar of didn’t work,” Geib said. their choice. Students apply He was most surprised by to the program during fall how often students would quarter, take a winter quarter redirect the discussion, and pedagogy course and work uncover things about the text under the close supervision of Geib had never considered a faculty mentor. himself. Sometimes he felt His seminar was one of like he learned more than he many offered this quarter, taught, he added. from “Physics of SuperheUltimately, the most imporroes and Science Fiction” to tant thing Geib learned while “Allure of the Medieval: Mid- teaching the class, he said, dle Ages in Popular Culture.” is that he wants to pursue Geib said he was nervous teaching as a profession. He about whether his proposal added that teaching gives him to teach a class on Lord of the a feeling of comfort and satRings would be accepted. isfaction, as he both listens “When it was first pub- to new ideas and formulates l i s he d, a lot of sc hol a r s his own. thought of it as a fun, silly little adventure story, and some SEMINAR | Page 11

RADIO: History professor looks back on more than a decade of teaching

DAILY BRUIN

The 2011-2012 academic year was a turbulent one for history Professor Teofilo Ruiz. Between meeting President Barack Obama, visiting his native Cuba (for the first time since fleeing during the chaos of the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961), publishing three books and severing his Achilles’ heel, Teo, as he is affectionately known by his students, has had a year filled with personal excitement and emotion. But amid these personal ventures, this year has been difficult for him academically because of the current budget crisis affecting the UC system and its impact on the study of the field of humanities.

Read more online at dailybruin.com/radio

RADIO

PRISCILLA RODRIGUEZ/ DA I LY

BRUIN

RYAN AZAD/ DA I LY

BRUIN

Cody Geib, a fourth-year English student and former Daily Bruin staffer, designed and taught a seminar about “The Lord of the Rings” this quarter.

dailybruin.com/news | news | Monday, June 11, 2012 | DAILY BRUIN

CHANGES ON THE HILL $225 million in Hill construction projects will add 1,507 more beds by winter 2013 in an attempt to guarantee four-year student housing. Here are details about hill residents, costs and construction.

Construction and renovation areas

Residents on the Hill 12000

Hedrick Hall

Courtside Residential Suites

Cost of living on the Hill*

Projected 2012: 10,550

10000

6000

Rieber

4000 Dykstra Hall

0

High rise double 19*: $12,675

10000 5000

2000 Holly, Gardenia

Plaza single 19p*: $17,385

15000

8000 Sproul Cove, Landing

20000

*Meals per week ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12

0

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

TIMELINE OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS 2010

2011

2012

2013

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Holly and Gardenia: January 2010 - February 2012

Holly

252 rooms

10 floors

Gardenia

7 floors

496 beds 156 rooms 307 beds

11

PEIMAN | Fieldwork challenging fun from page 10 trees and played recordings of their songs to simulate the presence of a real bird. The birds, attracted by the sight and sounds of another bird, approached the specimen, and Peiman observed how they behaved.

One passerby who saw Peiman carrying the mounted specimens asked if the stuffed birds were alive. This was a great compliment to her taxidermy skills, she said jokingly.

Duri ng her study i n the Ba h a m a s, Pei m a n of ten worked among tropical bugs and poisonous plants into the after noon, when the birds became less active. She would then get a chance to eat lunch, nap, catch up on other work,

or if she was lucky, go for a swim. As the afternoon heat began to subside, field work continued and lasted until dusk.

Her interest in understanding animal behavior has taken her beyond the Bahamas.

She has worked on projects across the globe, from tracking birds in Puerto Rico, to studying fish behavior in Iceland, to researching seabirds in Hawaii and Alaska.

Apart from the physical work, Peiman was presented w ith other challenges during her fieldwork. A hurricane struck the field station a week before she arrived in the Bahamas, and she showed up to a recovering site with very few people present.

She also needed to obtain permits in order to legally

catch, tag a nd br i n g back samples for analysis.

During her next field season, she plans to return to the Bahamas and Mexico to study the diets of the same birds to see how the two species overlap in their use of resources.

Although she does analysis and some testing for her study at UCLA, most of her work is field-based, Peiman said. “The field can be a lonely place, as well as an amazing place to be,” sa id Ad rea Gon za lezKarlsson, one of Peiman’s lab mates.

Despite the challenges, Peiman remains enthusiastic.

“Because I’m doing what I love, I’ll put up with the 5 a.m. mornings, the bugs, the scratchy plants,” she said. “Do what you love, because it’s hard work.”

Sproul Cove, Landing, Presidio: May 2010 - fall 2013

Cove:

9 floors

Landing:

6 floors

Presidio:

207 rooms 406 beds 152 rooms 298 beds

fitness center, 750-seat dining commons, 425-seat multipurpose meeting room

Rieber dining hall renovation: January 2010 - October 2011 Hedrick Hall renovation: Spring 2010 - fall 2011 Sunset Village Courtside interior renovations: Spring 2012 Dykstra Hall renovations: February 2012 - fall 2013 Source: UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services. Reporting by Erin Donnelly, Bruin senior staff. Graphic by Maxwell Henderson, Bruin senior staff.

VIDEO: An international perspective

DIANE HO/ DA I LY

BRUIN

Coming to UCLA can seem like a culture shock to many international students. Hailing from Egypt to Australia, hear stories from several foreign students about their time at UCLA at dailybruin.com/video

SEMINAR | Further teaching in his plans from page 10 His faculty mentor, English professor Jonathan Grossman, who guided Geib throughout his teaching experience, said he saw Geib develop a serious academic interest in the subject over the course of the year.

Geib would send him lengthy emails every week, analyzing

the failures and successes of each class discussion.

“He’s really only a half step away from writing academic articles and doing scholarly research,” Grossman said.

Geib is g raduati n g th is spring, and hopes to spend next year teaching English abroad.

He said he sometimes envisions his future self standing

in front of about 80 students or so, going over the syllabus for a fully fledged Lord of the Rings class. Next time, he’ll be a professor, not a student.

“In my mind, I’d start off my lecture telling them how I started this class as student,” he said. “I’d begin with: ‘Well, when I was an undergraduate student...’”

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DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | news | dailybruin.com/news

MappingMemories Memories Mapping Withcampus 163 buildings acres,coming the UCLA campus betime. daunting students comingacross here for The UCLA can bestretching daunting toacross many 419 students here for thecan first Withto 163many buildings stretching 419the first acres,time. evenBut theover mosttheir discreet on campusspaces can evoke strongcome memories for strong people.memories Graduating yearsofaslocations Bruins, particular on campus to evoke forseniors students. Graduwere asked to recall their favorite memory of a place at UCLA, speaking about how their time here has been ating seniors were asked to recall their favorite memory of a place at UCLA, reflecting on how that location defined by the places they have been to. Hear their stories as well as map out your favorite hasofdefined their time here.

Hear their stories, and digitally map out your own experiences at UCLA, at memory UCLA at <WEBSITE LINK> www.dailybruin.com/gradissue2012

YRL

RIEBER HALL

ROYCE HALL PUBLIC AFFAIRS IM FIELD

SHAPIRO FOUNTAIN

LOT 4

JAN POPPER

KERCKHOFF

SEMEL INSTITUTE

Intramural Field — Kevin Longa, fourth-year marine biology and Philip Caltabiano, fourth-year economics

Shapiro Fountain — Ethan Scapellati, fourth-year history and political science

“Within a couple of days living here and playing here, it turned me into a bona fide Bruin,” said Longa, who is part of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band.

“And I remember thinking... wow. I truly imparted my enthusiasm for the school on another student,” said Scapellati, who is a campus tour guide.

Jan Popper Theater — Taylor Vickery, fourth-year neuroscience Taylor Vickery, a fourth-year neuroscience student, recalls his final night performing a sold-out show in Jan Popper Theater with the student-ru n LCC Theatre Company.

Public Affairs — Matt Bui, fourth-year communication studies

Lot 4 — Megan Barker, fourth-year communication studies; Justin Sabino, fourth-year psychology; Denice Bautista, fourth-year communication studies; Geoffrey Cruz, fourth-year geography “It’s a dirty floor, concrete, dust, dim lighting, loud cars driving by, but to us it’s home,” said Bautista of the parking lot where she practices with dance group Samahang Modern.

Fourth-year psychology student Tahoora Sadoughi was introduced to co-ed honor fraternity Phi Sigma Pi for the first time at Kerckhoff Hall. She reflects on the friendships she built and her own personal growth while serving with her fraternity brothers.

“To be on that Royce stage, where so many other performers have performed before, is the most incredible feeling,” said Lopez, who participated in Samahang Pilipino’s culture night.

Semel Institute — Nikki Rillera, fourth-year political science Graduating student Nikki Rillera shares her rewarding experience at Semel Institute’s Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization Program, where she played the role of mentor and friend for disabled children.

Fourth-year communication studies student Matt Bui walks the Public Affairs hallways to not only go to class but also to reach deeper spiritual meaning through religious conferences hosted by the Christian organization InterVarsity.

Kerckhoff — Tahoora Sadoughi fourth-year psychology

Royce Hall — Brittany Lopez, fourth-year microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics

Young Research Library — Tara Petrin, recent history graduate Rieber Hall — Ryan Krebs, fourth-year political science Even though Ryan Krebs is a fourth-year student, he still considers the Hill his home.

Krebs reflects on how his experience as a resident assistant in Rieber Hall has added meaning to his UCLA career.

From finding out about births a nd de at h s i n her fa m i ly t o researching graduate school plans, Tara Petrin, who graduated with a degree in history in fall 2011, considers Young Research Library to be the place where she caught up on life during her undergraduate years.

dailybruin.com/news | news | Monday, June 11, 2012 | DAILY BRUIN

Spreading the word

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Scan the code using your phone to read and hear phrases in endangered languages

Saving fading languages Linguistics graduate student Laura McPherson strives for preservation, exposure

BY OLIVIA HITCHCOCK

Bruin contributor

ohitchcock@media.ucla. edu C O U RT E SY O F

BENJAMIN LEWIS

Benjamin Lewis will move across the country to teach UCLA’s first American Sign Language classes in the fall.

BY KASSY CHO Bruin reporter kcho@media.ucla.edu Playing with his neighbors on the streets of Fremont, Calif. as a little boy, Benjamin Lewis and his childhood friends had a secret language that only they understood.

But the secret language was more than a way to play games.

It was a way for Lewis, who was born deaf, to com municate with his friends as well as his deaf parents.

Unable to speak, Lewis said he had to find different ways to communicate. He constantly came up with new hand gestures with his friends and made his own type of sign language.

Starting this fall, Lewis will use his years of practice to teach two American Sign Language classes at UCLA. Gestu r i n g to a si g n la nguage interpreter through a Video Relay Service who voiced his sentences over the phone, Lewis said he wants to teach

because he wants to make sure American Sign Language and culture is preserved for deaf children.

The courses are ASL 1: “Elementary American Sign Language,” and ASL M115: “Disability and Deaf Study Issues” at UCLA, said Kyle McJunkin, director of curriculum coordination.

ASL courses have been in the works for more than a year now, after a Daily Bruin opinion columnist started a petition last year urging the university to offer sign language.

“I want students to really get to see and fall in love with the language as much as I have,” Lewis said.

Lewis said although he was interested in teaching, it never really struck him as something that he would do until he landed a job teaching American Sign Language in Japan after graduating from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a university for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Besides experiencing the immediate culture shock of smaller rooms and driving on the opposite side of the road,

ASL | Page 14

AMY SHERRARD/ DA I LY

One of Benjamin Lewis’ goals is to preserve American Sign Language culture through course

B R U I N S E N I O R STA F F

Instructor shares love of language

S p oke n by j u s t 6 0,0 0 0 people, Tommo So is one of hundreds of understudied and undocumented languages in the world.

One UCLA graduate student is trying to preserve Tommo So, along with other understudied and undocumented languages, through her work at UCLA. Over the past three years, Laura McPherson traveled to the West African country of Mali to document the language as part of her graduate research.

Flipping through a photo book, the graduate student in linguistics pointed to the claybrick compound where she lived during one of her trips to Mali.

She lea r ned Tom mo So through exchanges in French with local residents during her stay, analyzing the language’s tonal patterns for her research.

This summer, McPherson

NEIL BEDI/ DA I LY

BRUIN

Linguistics graduate student Laura McPherson traveled to Mali to document the understudied language of Tommo So.

will pull from her fieldwork experience to teach a course in language documentation with an emphasis on endangered languages, which are no longer actively taught to new generations. In her class, McPherson said she plans to share texts and recordings that she collected in Mali, while studying under the wing of a wellknown field linguist.

At a time when languages are dying out at a faster rate than ever before, McPherson said she would like to teach students about how endangered languages can be preserved and documented.

Russell Schuh, a professor

in linguistics and McPherson’s adviser, introduced the course to UCLA’s linguistics department this spring. Schuh, however, said he designed the course specifically with McPherson in m ind so she cou ld en ha nce the cou rse using her research in endangered languages.

McPherson has visited Mali multiple times for her field research – all before getting a doctoral degree, an unusual path for most linguistics graduate students, Schuh said.

McPherson is cu r rently working on the only book of

ENDANGERED | Page 14

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DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | news | dailybruin.com/news

ASL | New communicative levels reached from page 13 Lewis said he was often misunderstood because Japan has its own sign language, just like it has its own spoken language.

“People think that (American Sign Language) is a universal language,” Lewis said.

“But the hand gestures make no sense whatsoever to someone who grew up in another country.”

While in Japan, he stayed with a deaf couple that taught him Japanese sign language.

Lewis said he used his newly learned language to write an easy textbook to teach Japanese deaf people who were struggling to learn American Sign Language from English textbooks. “(Lewis’) teaching style is very dynamic,” said Raychelle Harris, a sign language coordinator and assistant professor at Gallaudet University. “He moves around a lot. It’s impossible to fall asleep in his class.”

Hana Al Ameri, a student at Gallaudet University who took

ENDANGERED from page 13 gra m mar about Tom mo So besides a 40-page pamphlet published about 17 years ago, she said. A digital spreadsheet lists a 9,000-word Tommo So dictionary that she compiled one word at a time.

“I can’t remember anybody who had a book to their name before they got their Ph.D.s,” Schuh said.

McPherson hopes students will learn they can pursue fieldwork now as undergraduates and wants to share her excite-

Lewis’ class last semester, said Lewis’ class was engaging and never boring.

“I didn’t know American Sign Language before, but I never felt like I was far away from the students in my class who knew (American Sign Language),” Al Ameri said. “(Lewis) has this magical way of making all students feel involved, no matter what language level.”

Lewis also encouraged Al Ameri and her fellow classmates to practice American Sign Language outside the classroom, she said.

Dea f people a lso have unique rules that people are unaware of, Lewis said. He said he wants to incorporate these customs into his class, he said.

For exa mple, he sa id he hopes to teach students about the many methods deaf people use to get each other’s attention that other people may consider rude, such as flashing lights on and off, pounding on the floor or tapping a person’s shoulder.

“Many people aren’t aware

that it’s actually difficult to get a deaf person’s attention,” Lewis said. “You can’t yell their name because they can’t hear you.”

Mariam Janvelyan, a firstyear undeclared student and the external vice president of Humans Establishing Awareness Regarding Deafness at UCLA, a student group that teaches sign language to students, said even though she has fulfilled her language requirement, she will be using her first pass to sign up for ASL 1 in the fall.

“I think it’s brilliant to have a deaf lecturer,” Janvelyan said.

“It kind of forces you to learn faster because you want to communicate with the professor and get closer to him.”

As Lewis prepares to move from D.C. to Los Angeles, he said he look forward to offering UCLA students a new perspective on American Sign Language and deafness. “It’s about not seeing it as a disability, but as a language and culture,” he said.

ment for the field.

“Why sit in the office looking at a book in German grammar when you can be out there making a difference ... working with a community that really wants your help in preserving a language?” she said.

Back i n Los A n geles, McPherson continues to collect field data for her research. She works with Senaya, an endangered language that originated in Iran. The language is spoken by just 200 people in the world who live primarily in Los Angeles, McPherson said.

McPherson has already written introductory chapters of a Senaya language textbook using her data.

She and a colleague in the linguistics department drive to Pomona every week to meet w ith Paul Caldani, a native Senaya speaker.

For about two hours each week, Caldani teaches the graduate students conversational vocabulary, explaining verb tense rules and other grammar patterns.

Caldani said he is hopeful McPherson’s textbook will help preserve the language before it dies out.

“It goes back to the fact that if you don’t work on endangered languages now, it will be too late to work on them and they won’t be there,” McPherson said.

RADIO: Changing majors for better or for worse

DAILY BRUIN

RADIO

AMY SHERRARD/ DA I LY

B R U I N S E N I O R STA F F

Much has changed for the students graduating in the class of 2012 throughout their years at UCLA. In fact, around half of the students who will be graduating have changed their majors at least twice since they entered UCLA. Bill Gordon, the director of College Academic Mentoring and Peer Learning with the College of Letters and Science, discusses how counselors like himself aid students who are considering a change in major. Fourth-year anthropology student Joseph Racca and fourthyear sociology student Priscilla Ramos, both graduating next weekend, talk about their personal experiences in trying to find the right major. Read more online at dailybruin.com/radio

Stay connected!

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/DailyBruin

Opinion

SUBMIT TO: opinion@media.ucla.edu Opinion at the Daily Bruin 118 Kerckhoff Hall 308 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90024-1641

For Daily Bruin submission guidelines, please visit dailybruin. com/contact.

Graduation Issue 2012

dailybruin.com/opinion

All Opinion content represents its author’s viewpoint. The Bruin complies with the Communication Board’s policy prohibiting the publication of articles that perpetuate derogatory cultural or ethnic stereotypes. When multiple authors submit material, some names may be kept on file rather than published with the material.

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Stepping Out of the Den YA N

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Before the Internet, foreign correspondents would report back via telegraph and sign off with the phrase “-30-” to indicate the end of their transmission. Every year, as a tribute to the Daily Bruin and the hours and hours spent reporting, photographing, producing and editing, graduating staff publish their final farewell columns in the last issue of the year – their -30- columns – to signify the end of their Daily Bruin experiences.

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Stories pulse through paper Capturing the crazy journey

LAUREN JOW

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way on a mountain retreat, our fledgling editors sat in a wide circle learning a lesson in storytelling on a Saturday night.

The prompt hung ambivalently in the autumn air, the angle undefined: What has made you who you are?

Nobody spoke for a few pensive minutes. The wood floor was hard beneath us, the lights off. Clothes rustled as we shifted nervously. We barely knew each other.

Hesitantly, the stories came out one by one. No one inter-

rupted, no one responded.

Our ears attuned to the quavering voices, quiet at first, then gaining speed and rambling through memories – with no direction and no editing, just stories in the raw, shared into the unassuming darkness.

Three hours later, we turned on the lights, meeting each other’s bleary eyes and softened faces.

Some sense of closeness emerged that night as we fumbled through our stories, trying to express the essence of ourselves in hopes that someone in the room would understand.

After all, that’s what we do here – tell stories.

Every day we tell tales of adversity and achievement, corruption and creativity, frustration and friendship.

So much life has graced our fingertips, as we humbly try our best to get the heart of a story just right.

On that autumn night, we realized that the heart of a true community paper comes from within one of the most important communities – our own.

That night, a family was born out of love for one another and love for our craft, and what it means to care for a group of people who choose to live their lives in parallel, if only for a few years.

That family has only grown

this year. Each story lived within and beyond the walls of our newsroom adds to the expanse of experience we have shared.

As student-journalists, we live at the intersection of these stories, depending on the strength, tenacity and kindness of strangers-turnedfamily to make a community, make a statement and make it through the year.

And we made it. So, next year’s staff and readers: Now it’s your turn to make a paper.

Jow was the editor in chief for 2011-2012, a slot editor and news reporter for 2010-2011 and a copy editor for 20082010.

Epic finish is only start of story RYAN ESHOFF

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he End. Such finality in the words, such magnitude of meaning. The phrase is commonplace in our culture – ironic, because we clearly hate endings.

We hate endings, which is why we have 10-year reunions and graduate school and dessert and encores and seconds of dessert and 13 “Land Before Time” movies.

I covered sports for four years here, and people tend to be drawn to sports for the epic finishes. I count myself among that group. Over the last few years in Westwood I’ve covered

walk-off home runs, gamewinning shots at the buzzer and last-second field goals.

Cue the celebrations!

But don’t even sports fans hate endings? Word out of the University of Kentucky was that the day after the Wildcats won the national championship for college basketball this past April, message boards, online forums and call-in radio shows were buzzing with talk of recruiting and possibility of repeating victory. The day after!

We’re not too good at handling endings, regardless of how spectacular they are.

Most of you have probably seen “The Avengers” by now.

Yeah – not just one, but TWO scenes after the credits! It’s a

cool tradition and all, but just end the movie already.

What then is the reason for our seemingly inherent incompatibility with endings? I’m sure many of you could put on your social anthropology hats and give me an answer, but I’m of the belief that we are just not wired to accept the finality of endings.

My experiences at UCLA and the Daily Bruin have taught me many things, some rather interesting and some completely irrelevant. But in all the reading and writing that comprises the schedule of an English major and a journalist, I’ve confirmed the conviction that our life stories do not simply end with death, that our souls were created for a narrative infinitely

longer than one that ends with a pair of words signaling the conclusion.

Graduation might mean that it’s time to start a new chapter, but it’s certainly not time to close the book. It’s been four years of character development, plot twists and cliffhangers, and man, oh man what a fun and memorable chapter. But shoot, there’s plenty left to read in each of our stories and I don’t think you’ll ever have to finish.

Just like this column, the end is only the beginning.

Eshoff was a sports senior staff writer for 2010-2012, assistant sports editor for 2010-2011, sports reporter for 2009-2010 and a sports contributor for 2008-2009.

ISAAC ARJONILLA

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he table is cluttered, the room is empty and the moon illuminates the room.

I sit here, trying to conjure a cleverly written introduction to my column.

Wait, I’ve got it.

I had just brushed my teeth and was getting ready for bed. It was early spring quarter of my second year, and I was particularly excited this night because I was anticipating a call from the Daily Bruin’s photo department.

Right before I fell asleep, I got a notification on my phone. It was an email from the photo editor. I didn’t get in.

It’s been over two years since I received that email and things got better.

I was later accepted, and became the jerk who sends the rejection emails to hopeful and aspiring photojournalists.

The amount of work is incessant; I spend more hours working a single day in Kerckhoff 118 than I do in an entire week of class, and the stress, though motivating, is unavoidable.

I have never been happier in my life.

But this isn’t about me. It never was.

This is about all of those faces that believed, the faces

that made this column possible, the faces that made this journey memorable. Thank you for trusting, listening, and being there.

In one year, I’ve tried to improve the function of the Photo department in the newsroom, I’ve seen my photo run in the New York Times and been offered an editorial internship at the U-T San Diego.

Here is where this Cinderella story ends, the one about the guy who got rejected (twice) and was lucky enough to have been given a chance to prove himself.

The table remains cluttered, and I still sit alone, accompanied only by the moon’s glare. I’m getting ready for bed and I’m once again feeling particularly excited because now, for the first time in a year, I’m not anticipating a call from the Daily Bruin, or a text, or an email.

I’ve finished the journey.

I’m holding my camera, peering through the viewfinder, remembering everything it saw this year. I may have run out of film, but now I’ve got all of these memories captured.

I mean, that’s the whole point of taking pictures, right?

Arjonilla was a 2011-2012 editor, 2011 staff photographer and 2010-2011 photo contributor.

Bittersweet challenge of journalism Deadline is more than an end DANIEL SCHONHAUT

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all it an occupational hazard of journalism that you’ll spend a lot of time staring at a blank Word document thinking, “Where do I begin?”

The cursor will blink mockingly at the top, left-hand corner of your screen, inviting you to type something – anything (as long as it’s not, “When…”).

You’ve done all the reporting. You can recite the facts like an encyclopedia. You even have a great quote that you’d like to work in at some point. But that first sentence!

Sometimes, holding off until just before a story is due (called “writing on deadline”) works wonders for writer’s block. This is risky though, and editors don’t like it, so other remedies are generally to be preferred.

Often, it’s a matter of better defining your story. “What am I trying to say, and why is it important?” Or, “Why would someone want to read this?”

But when all else fails, I’ve followed the advice offered by my high school English teacher: “Just start writing.”

Now, after four years of writing ledes and nut grafs and whatever the remaining stuff is called; after laboring over the tiny details of syntax that no one else will notice, but caring anyway; after knowing the satisfaction that comes with finishing a story at 3 a.m., blurryeyed but feeling good about it; after experiencing the rush of picking up a newspaper and seeing my name printed on the front page, I’m left with a new challenge: the conclusion.

How do I say goodbye to a paper that has given me so much?

More than anything else, the Daily Bruin came to define my college experience. I learned to observe, ask questions and report.

I met fascinating people – fascinating like, “I surgically separated conjoined twin babies,” or, “I jump out of airplanes for the U.S. Army when I’m not too busy taking classes and leading the UCLA cheer squad.”

Above all, I made friends at the Daily Bruin without whom I would never have made it this far. It is to them I wish to dedicate the rest of this column.

So, thank you to Carolyn, my editor of two years who is the reason I did not quit as a freshman.

To Sam and Sam, for being the

best co-editors I could possibly have asked for.

To Sean, Sonali, Devin and Kelly, for sticking with me when I made mistakes and for being great at what you did, each in your own way.

To Farzad, for your bang-up job as editor and your always amusing analogies.

To all my writers in Westwood and Crime – I still don’t know how I got so lucky with you.

To News, which has grown so much in three years due to the dedication of its writers and editors.

To the editorial board members, for listening to my silly opinions.

And to everyone else, for the many things I have not mentioned.

Like any story, my time at the Bruin can only be so long before it becomes too long.

Although I am stepping away from the paper and, indeed, journalism, I do so knowing the people I met and the experiences I had will stay with me for a lifetime.

It’s a bittersweet ending, and thinking back to the beginning, I’m struck by how fast it all went by.

Schonhaut was a news senior staff reporter for 2011-2012, the news editor for 2010-2011, an assistant news editor for 2009-2010 and a news reporter for 2008-2009.

SAMANTHA MASUNAGA

edge you gain as part of senior staff.

I learned about the realities of daily production, built a new threshold of am addicted to working stress tolerance and realized how much on deadline.

I loved to work in print.

I do it for stories and But more importantly, I found a new editorials. I now do it for essays and family. People with whom I could go on midterms. In fact, I’m doing it right now road trips with, make hand turkeys, eat as I write this column. ramen – simple things that fostered the The closer it is to 5 p.m., the better I transition from colleague to friend. can think through and feel out a story.

After four years at the Daily Bruin, Call it an adrenaline rush, if you will.

I think that’s what I’ll be taking away.

Over the years, I’d like to think that It’s kind of like the layers of wall quotes I’ve gotten better at managplastered across the office’s ing deadlines. But my loomwalls. ing graduation deadline is Everyone makes a mark Everyone something I don’t quite think on the paper, but over time, makes a mark I have a handle on yet. you simply become part of I joined the Daily Bruin on the paper, but the underlying foundation. as a first-year, hoping just to Quotes from the past are over time, you improve my writing and to now layered under sayings simply become make sure that journalism from the present. Though was something I wanted to part of the under- I have a few choice words pursue as a career. lying foundation. displayed in the News When assistant news section, I know they won’t editor application deadline always be there. rolled around, I made all kinds of So when I file my last story and leave excuses – I was too young, the job was the paper in the hands of the new staff, too much. In the end, a strong editor it’ll finally be my cue to move on. After convinced me that my time had come. all, what is deadline but a chance to “You take on so many articles and start on a whole new story? you’re always in the office,” she told me.

“You must want something more.”

Masunaga was a news senior staff writer At that moment, she knew me better from 2011-2012, an assistant news editor than I knew myself. from 2009-2011 and a news contributor Nothing can compare to the knowlfrom 2008-2009.

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DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | opinion | dailybruin.com/opinion

Diverse student body set Absence of rules permits to make global impact independence and change

BY GENE BLOCK

which is critical to functioning well in our increasingly global society. Some of your UCLA here’s a special excitement in the air as classmates will be your friends for life and will we wind up another successful academic continue to enrich your experience. I urge you year and look forward to summer. to stay connected to your fellow alumni; the The many commencement and awards cereBruin network is a remarkable group that can monies held during this season bring families empower you in whatever you pursue. and friends to campus to join us in celebrating UCLA students inspire me in so many ways, the amazing achievements of UCLA students. but especially in their desire to be of service to I want to be among the first to say congratuothers and to truly make the world better for all. lations to the Class of 2012.

Through your research projects, civic engageI am so proud of all of you, and I hope you ment and volunteering, you have enriched the realize that it is your own stellar accomplishLos Angeles community, and some of you have ments and unwavering commitment traveled far away to share what you to excellence that have brought you have learned here. I encourage you to to this magnificent milestone. continue to apply your knowledge and Countless talents to make a difference wherever A UCLA degree signifies your ability and determination not just options are open you are. As Bruins, you know you can to succeed, but to redefine success. create a brighter tomorrow. to you, and you It shows that you overcame the Some of you will pursue graduate hurdles you encountered along the are equipped studies right away, others will begin way. And for many of you, it also professional careers, some will take to surpass the represents your family’s dedication status quo in any time to travel or volunteer and ponder to helping you prepare to fulfill what comes next. Whatever you do, I of them. your dreams and become a gameurge you to keep strong ties to UCLA. changer anywhere in the world.

You are now Bruins for life, and your You can leave here knowing that continued engagement will benefit you are ready to lead in whatever you choose to you and help us better serve the students who do. That’s more than optimism; it’s confidence come after you. Your support will enable them firmly based in reality. to have the same opportunities you have had.

At UCLA, you have gained an understandAs new graduates, you stand on the cusp of ing not only of your own major field of study so much. Countless options are open to you, but also of the perspectives of other academic and you are equipped to surpass the status quo areas. This will be invaluable in today’s world, in any of them. This is a time of promise and where complex issues demand a multidisciexhilaration. Remember to savor the moment plinary approach. with your classmates, family and friends. I know You have also encountered the various you will make us proud, and I hope you know viewpoints of your diverse fellow students, the that you will always be welcome back home at other high-achievers all around you. In seeing UCLA. the world through a prism different from your own, you have broadened your worldview,

T

EUNICE LEONG

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f there is one flaw to which I will readily admit, it is that I can sometimes take things a bit too seriously.

I study constantly, take too many classes, worry incessantly about law school admissions and lie awake at night wondering about the headlines I wrote. In short, I am your typical impatient, overanxious, perfection-seeking Type A college student, and I probably fit right into the stereotype of the chronically sleepdeprived, deadline-driven journalist.

Recently, several of my friends asked me why I had chosen to join Copy. I rambled on about something random and inconsequential, as I am wont to do, but later, I had to think about it.

It took me a while to realize that one of the innumerable reasons why Copy is great is that there are rules dictating just about every single thing – style, grammar, spelling, proper nouns, titles – many of them baffling, some of them probably inane and all of them gloriously reassuring.

When I didn’t know what to do or why I was doing something, I could always rely on a rule born from the expertise of people with far more experience and knowledge than I. If nothing else, I could always fall back on a rote, “That’s the rule, sorry about it,” when talking to a writer.

The Bruin forced me to understand that the best manner to approach some things is to let them go, rather than obsessing over them.

When I became

copy chief, all the rules that had previously been so reassuring became nerve-wracking instead, as it fell primarily to me to decide them. Terrified of any missteps, I was caught off-guard more than once, stuttering before leaping forward with an answer that, in all likelihood, I had just made up on the spot based on experience, caprice and a great hope that I was correct.

Of course, my better decisions were always due to the gentle nudging from pointed questions by the other slot editors and by insightful, curious writers.

Lacking my previous safety net of having a top editor make the ultimate decisions for me, I built my own structure as copy chief, and learned to depend on the other copy editors around me, a lesson I am still absorbing.

But here I am, on the cusp of graduation and the first step into a life that won’t necessarily have the orderliness I have always preferred.

I am afraid of a time when I will no longer have email chains and group texts about scheduling, stories and random Daily Bruin style tips, a time when I can no longer even latch onto social bonds. I am terrified of not knowing the rules that will keep me on the right path moving forward, of not having anything to fall back on or anyone to catch me if I mess up.

As I have learned, though, this lack of structure sometimes just means an abundance of possibility – the possibility of creating our own rules, of forging our own paths.

Leong was copy chief from 2011-2012, a slot editor from 2010-2011, and a copy editor from 2009-2010.

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End of era starts a new experience

Lack of jobs not a sign of lack of preparation F

ANN DU

REI ESTRADA

science student and it’s difficult not to wonder if leaving the major know I’m ready.” was the right choice, or if I wasted I wrote that my time as an English major, or four years ago if I should have reconsidered law in a blog post during school instead of slaving away at what I called “the biggest change the Daily Bruin. of my life”: graduating from high But the more I think about it, the school and leaving for college. Four more I realize that I’m more ready years later, I’m taking another big than I ever thought. UCLA and Los step on the eve of another graduaAngeles are such big places that tion. It’s strange how much things it’s nearly impossible not to pick seem to change because all I can something up. Like many students, think about now is how this time, I most lessons took place outside the don’t feel ready at all. lecture hall.

Graduating when we are, I I’ve eaten samosas on the roof know that most of the class of 2012 of the Fowler Museum and smelled must feel the same way. That is, defeat in the Rose Bowl locker unless you’re a South room. I’ve seen DownCampus student or one town Los Angeles light of those people who up at night and scaled Real life landed some investment the cliffs at Malibu. I’ve pushes me into banking job. You all watched sunrises from can return to flipping my dorm room after another adventhrough IKEA cataloges ture, with monall-nighters. I’ve eaten and figuring out which at Fat Sal’s. sters called ‘uncouch goes with your I’ve talked to employment’ and playwrights, former new apartment. I hear the “Ektorp” is a solid gangsters and basket ‘moving home.’ choice. weavers. I’ve seen Graduating. When I what comedian Patton graduated from high school, all I Oswalt once said is true, that could do was look forward; college “everyone and everything has its was an adventure, and I was only own story, and something to teach armed with the warm memories you, and that they’re also trying from home.

– consciously or unconsciously – But that was enough. I was to learn and grow from you and ready for everything, for all the everything else around them.” I’ve monstrous midterms and hangrealized how important that idea is. overs I knew awaited me.

While four years hasn’t paid But now, all I can do is stare out off in the jobs, fame and money across the threshold while real life we were promised, we’re still pushes me into another adventure, prepared. To paraphrase Jack one with worse monsters called Donaghy from “30 Rock” – we’re “unemployment” and “moving young, and we still haven’t blown it home.” completely, so let’s not start now.

It’s unbelievably scary to work I’m still afraid. I still question toward the promise of a job and my choices. I still don’t know what success for four years, only to comes next. But whatever that is, I reach the end and find out that know I’m ready. what you were looking for doesn’t exist anymore.

Estrada was a video producer and an I entered UCLA as a computer illustrator for 2010-2012.

“I

our years ago, I walked into 118 Kerckhoff Hall for the first time.

It was Thursday of week one during my first quarter at UCLA. I was a quiet, confused and awkward intern-to-be. An entire undergraduate career’s worth of experiences later, I will be walking out of those familiar double doors a loud, but still confused and awkward ex-senior staffer.

The unchanging brick exterior, the eternal griminess of the keyboards, that one bowl of frozen noodles in the back corner fridge that never seems to expire are deceptive. The Daily Bruin is all about evolution.

Three years ago, what was formerly known as Daily Bruin TV got a face lift. The other editors and I had many reasons for this change: the changing nature of media, a new viewer generation, the shift to documentary-style storytelling. All this came in addition

to the fact that we were not actually on TV and had not been since we lost our channel a decade ago.

The result was Daily Bruin Video.

“You’re in Video? But the newspaper is made of like ... paper.”

This is the typical response I get when I tell people that I work for the Video section. I explain to them that, like many other modern news outlets, the Daily Bruin has an online section.

We have been rebranded with the sophisticated name “multimedia.”

We have been dubbed “the new face of journalism” and “a vision from the future.” Supposedly, we are the section that everyone will want to be in five years.

Really, we’re just the people in the office everyone else forgets because we don’t have mug shots and bylines like all the cool kids. And sometimes, we don’t even have content.

The second evolution runs much deeper and encompasses the entire newsroom. At the end of each academic year, the office undergoes

a metamorphosis akin to a heart transplant: the entrance of a new crop of editors to replace the old.

As each year ends and the office sends a group of outgoing editors to brave the real world, I always assume it’s the end of an era for the office.

What I have yet to realize is that each spring is the start of a new one.

The heart of the Daily Bruin does not die with the graduating class.

Rather, it is resuscitated by the incoming people as they breathe fresh life and energy into the newsroom.

So my final column is dedicated to them, the newsroom of 2012-2013 and the years to come. To all of you, including those who have not yet arrived at UCLA, I wish the very best.

Embrace every moment in that windowless office because those experiences are what college memories are made of.

Du was an assistant video producer from 2009-2011 and a video contributor from 2008-2009.

Newsroom was unfamiliar, now home SAMANTHA SUCHLAND

I

wasn’t really a UCLA student my third year of college. Technically, I was enrolled in classes and paying a lot of money for things like “libraries” and “gym memberships.”

But as far as I was concerned, I lived and learned in the Daily Bruin office that year.

Being an assistant editor in the Kerckhoff 118 office was my version of studying abroad. Sure I didn’t travel far, but I was immersed in a strange culture where people spoke in quotes, wrote in “grafs,” participated in a daily ritual called “budget” and ostracized the poor Oxford comma.

Oftentimes up was down and down was up. Time spent in the classroom was used for writing stories and coordinating interviews while breaks in the office were used for writing

essays and scanning class readings.

Complaints about Kerckhoff coffee were followed by trips upstairs to buy a third cup for the day.

When I first joined the paper, editors and staff writers seemed like insane masochists who had given up on having a social life and healthy levels of vitamin D. They are, but if UCLA taught me one thing it’s to take a closer look at the things we can’t understand.

Each day I was in the trenches with forty or so of the most dedicated and hardworking students I’ve met at UCLA. These are students who work from 12:15 p.m. to 2 a.m. to create a new issue of the paper only to wake up the next day and do it all over again.

It’s inspiring. It’s motivating. It’s the most passionate I’ve ever been and all jobs will be measured against the year I lived in the Daily Bruin office.

At one point, the Los Angeles Times intern recruiter talked to a group of us about journalism resumes. A fellow editor asked if we should include our GPAs. The recruiter shrugged his shoulders and went on to say something to the effect of: You work for the Daily Bruin, so it’s probably pretty low anyway.

I’ve never been prouder to be a member of the Daily Bruin. It’s true we work there at the expense of other things, but in the end there is a reason we stick with it. The Daily Bruin has become our home away from apartments and dorms.

We studied abroad for a year in Kerckhoff 118 and found the place in which we belonged at UCLA. Suchland was Prime editor for 20112012, A&E assistant editor for 20102011, an A&E reporter for 2009-2010 and a multimedia staff for 2009-2010.

dailybruin.com/opinion | opinion | Monday, June 11, 2012 | DAILY BRUIN

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Unity propels USAC forward Experience is crash

BY EMILY RESNICK

I

f you had told me when I first stepped foot on this campus that I would be involved in student government, I would never have believed you. My senior year of high school, I was the commissioner of spirit, but I thought that would be the extent of my involvement. Little did I know, I would serve not one but two years with UCLA’s student government and have a better time than I could have possibly imagined.

Serving as a general representative my junior year and as president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council this past year has been such an honor. I am beyond proud of the incredible work my offices have done, like founding the campus farmer’s market and bringing back Homecoming, and all the tangible achievements the USAC council has made as a whole by working together.

I want to stop and reflect on the amazing year we had as a USAC council: new and successful programs for students, more USAC visibility than ever before,

co-programming and creativity like no other, respect from fellow councilmembers and all this in spite of budget shortfalls and the other obstacles we encountered. I am so proud of each and every one of my fellow councilmembers’ incredible feats and of the great work this council has done as a whole.

Next year’s council has some very big shoes to fill, but I can’t wait to see what they will accomplish. I encourage them to reach out and to co-program, be honest and transparent in their representation of all students and emerge from this year with more enthusiasm and passion to make change than ever before. Above all, I hope they too have an amazing experience.

I witnessed firsthand that USAC has the power to affect real and positive change on this campus and change lives of both current and future Bruins for the better.

People often ask if I’m excited to not be president anymore because of the insane time commitment, but, while I am enjoying more free time, I really miss it. I have never learned

more about myself in a year and I was truly honored and humbled by the whole experience.

I am graduating with a major in psychobiology and considering either going to graduate school for physical therapy or throwing my pre-medical background to the wayside and going into marketing or public relations, since I absolutely love talking to and meeting new people! As president, my everyday routine was pretty hectic, so I put my future on hold. I am really looking forward to figuring out what I want to do next – but for now, I’ll start with my third summer at Bruinwoods.

I couldn’t be prouder to have served as your USAC President this past year. It was the best experience of my life, especially because I had the opportunity to work with so many of the amazing students, faculty and staff of our university. My sincerest congratulations to the Class of 2012, and go Bruins!

Emily Resnick was the president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council for the 2011-2012 school year.

Exposing a photographer’s adventures EVAN LUXENBERG

I

’ll confess. I shot a porn star last year.

I remember my stomach felt more upset than if I had eaten Panda Express for breakfast, Chipotle for lunch, and then ended my evening with a nice order of Mister Noodle. My hands were shaking, my mouth was dry, and my voice might have faltered slightly, but I did it. I shot her.

Well, more specifically, I photographed her. And to be even more specific, she was fully clothed, and it was for a Daily Bruin article profiling this UCLA student with an intriguingly unique extra-curricular.

But the Daily Bruin hasn’t just been about shooting porn stars – that’s just a cool story.

As I’m winding down my time at UCLA, I’ve been starting to reflect on my experience here, possibly even as much as the nostalgic Rick Neuheisel. No, maybe not quite that much.

I once stayed up staring at my

computer far past midnight, wondering if it was worth an all-nighter to fill out a Daily Bruin application as a pre-medical student with almost no photography experience. A year later, I found myself staying up staring at my computer far past midnight, editing photos for the next day’s paper.

I spent so many late nights in this office that the staff at Sbarro knew me all too well (Thanks for the extra breadsticks, by the way). It took so much out of me – the Bruin, not the breadsticks – but I kept coming back.

I kept coming back because the Daily Bruin kept giving back. Sure, the opportunities were amazing: I got to sit on the court and photograph Andy Murray and Andre Agassi, two of my favorite tennis players; I got to be there at legendary coach Al Scates’ last game before he retired as coach of our volleyball team; I even got to photograph UCLA’s basketball team when it played St. John’s in Manhattan at the height of “Linsanity” (I was tempted to start a “Trapanity” chant late in the second half).

The shoots were great, but not

because of the access. It was what they taught me – and the learning curve was more intimidating than my Chemistry 14CL class. Getting thrown into a situation, sometimes completely unprepared, and quickly figuring out not just how to capture the essence of what is happening, but to capture it in a way that’s never been done before. I had to look at seemingly boring situations and figure out how to make them visually interesting for the readers.

If I could go back in time and sit next to that hesitant sophomore staring at a computer and debating if the lack of sleep was worth the slim chance of becoming a Daily Bruin photographer, I would tell him the wise words that plague Facebook album covers: “YOLO” – which from its perpetual usage could stand for “Youth Often Lack Originality.”

course in writing

LAUREN ROBERTS

L.A. adventure column and interviewing some of UCLA’s most inspirapplied to the Daily ing students and professors. I’ve Bruin on a whim been proud to be a part of something – and in typical truly phenomenal, 93 years old and fashion, turned in counting. And no matter where I end my application one hour before its up whenever the real world hits, I’ll deadline. My roommates thought I forever treasure that. was crazy. I worried it would be a lot Perhaps I should blame the Daily of writing.

Bruin for exacerbating my chronic Turns out, the Daily Bruin addiction to coffee, habitual allinvolves a lot of writing. nighters and the recurring adrenaBut when I nervously submitted line rush that comes with the dawn my application to the Daily Bruin of a deadline, but that’s really all just arts & entertainment section in fall part of the fun. quarter of 2009, I never imagined my And so, this is my love letter to whim would be the best decision of the Daily Bruin, or rather, the people my college experience. in our dusty office nook that made Three years later, I only wish I it my favorite place to pass the time would have made the while procrastinating on decision sooner. all those class papers.

It’s hard to explain So thank you, Shelley This is my for believing I could fill life in the Daily Bruin newsroom to those who love letter to the your shoes as Lifestyle have never been beyond Daily Bruin, or and Theater editor, the doors of Kerckhoff Maryia for having faith rather, the people in my editing, Sammie 118, but it’s just the in our dusty office and Alex for laughing and right mix of mayhem and magic. nook that made it commiserating along the Amidst the decadesmy favorite place. way. old computers, wall And thank you, Andrew quotes, curiously “Angel” Bain for your stained couches and never ending wise-beyond-your-years friendship piles of newsprint is a kind of mafia. and Lenika, Marjorie and Spencer I’ve been student to several for carrying the A&E torch. You’re dozen professors, but the Daily as incredible as they come.

Bruin and, more importantly, the It is because of all of you that I talented individuals working behind was provided with the greatest crash its printed pages, were among the course in getting over my fear of the greatest teachers I ever encountered interview, the follow-up question at UCLA. And more than a UCLA and the phone call. And even with niche, the Daily Bruin was, quite a bleak job market on the horizon, I literally, my second home. feel as prepared as I’ll ever be for the I soon found the terror of public tough job interviews ahead. embarrassment in print to be far So if somewhere on the UCLA more inspiring than a final paper, campus someone reading this is on no matter how much my grades the fence about joining the Daily depended on it.

Bruin – perhaps worrying that it But the terror subsided some. may involve a lot of writing – rest And writing never got easy, but it assured, it does. But I think you’ll did become fun. like it.

For three years, I’ve had the surreal pleasure of meeting contemLauren Roberts was an A&E senior porary artists, staff writer from 2011-2012, Lifestyle reviewing and Theater editor from 2010-2011, concerts, an A&E and Prime contributor writing an 2009-2010.

I

Luxenberg was a senior staff photographer from 2011-2012, an assistant photo editor from 2010-2011, and a contributing photographer from 2009-2010.

Copy editor’s hoarded newspaper memories jump off the page CALVIN LAU

I

n my room back home sits a box full of personal mementos – my crown from my high school senior ball, a Diddy Riese tin can filled with trinkets I collected my first year of college, a blue packet bursting at the seams with pamphlets, tickets and receipts I accumulated while studying abroad.

In my room in my apartment sits an embarrassingly large pile of Daily Bruin newspapers.

I’m a bit of a collector, you see (or a hoarder, depending on who’s asking).

On occasion, I like to go through my old belongings and admire them, fondly recalling these memories from the past.

I do this with the newspapers I’ve stored up, too.

I can recall a unique memory

from every one of them: that night I forgot to check the blues and watched as my friend completely re-designed a page at 1:30 in the morning; that time when I thought up the perfect headline that fit the space just right; that issue for our undergraduate election, a night when I finally plopped down on my bed at 4 a.m. after an entire newsroom pulled together to create some truly amazing content.

What my stash of papers won’t tell me is all the other times I spent with my friends, both in and out of that windowless, unreasonably warm place known as the Daily Bruin office.

Like all those nights my friends and I, exhausted after finally sending the layouts to pagination, simply sat around and talked about life and the scary prospect of growing up as we waited for the call from the printer.

Or the moment I ceased to be

the token male slot editor and instead became a fellow small Asian girl in Copy’s coterie.

And the occasions spent bonding outside the office – the retreats, the feasts and (oh, yes) all of the parties – there’s no single item that can encapsulate the joy I felt from those experiences.

The articles printed in these issues don’t tell the whole story. They don’t reveal the stress involved with daily production, the pride I feel when I see someone pick up the paper or all the laughter that takes place in Kerckhoff 118.

I’ve amassed so many copies of the Daily Bruin, but all the fun times I’ve had in the office can’t be depicted on a dozen pages, no matter how many papers we print.

And that’s the beauty of it – all the highs and lows of my life, they can’t be summarized by any material item, whether it’s a box full of guides and brochures or a mountain of newspapers.

These memories go beyond the page, shared in part by all my friends and stored forever in my mind.

I like to keep and preserve objects that signify big moments in my life. For this past year, no number of items could have captured my happiness of being an editor at the Daily Bruin.

Lau was a slot editor from 2011-2012, a copy staffer from 2010-2011, and a copy contributor from 2009-2010.

YANGZI SHE/ DA I LY

BRUIN

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DAILY BRUIN | Monday, June 11, 2012 | opinion | dailybruin.com/opinion