VOLUME 48, ISSUE 60
THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015
AROUND CAMPUS
HOW UCSD GETS DOWN
After observing a group of adolescents over several years, researchers found that drinking can affect brain development.
WHAT IS UCSD’S ATTITUDE ABOUT PORN? A SURVEY OF OVER 500 STUDENTS REVEALS PREFERENCES AND THOUGHTS ON THE CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF WIDESPREAD CONSUMPTION.
BY Omkar mahajan
Staff writer
WEEKEND, PAGE 8
OUR FOND FAREWELL
2015 Senior sendoffs OPINION, Page 4
JUSTIN DONATELLA sPORTS, Page 12
The United States Water Polo team competed against the Serbian men’s national team at Canyonview Pool earlier this week. Photo by Megan Lee / UCSD Guardian.
FORECAST CALIFORNIA
THURSDAY H 71 L 60
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SATURDAY
SUNDAY
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FRIDAY
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VERBATIM ANDREW AND TAYLOR, IT’S BEEN AN HONOR TO WATCH YOUR EVOLUTION FROM SWEET RAYS OF POSITIVITY INTO THE SNARKY, BITTER SOULS YOU ARE NOW.”
-Aleksandra Konstantinovic OPINION, PAGE 4
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Study Shows Impact of Alcohol on Teen Brains
ILLUSTRATION BY ELYSE YANG
a slow rise to stardom
WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG
Senate Approves Health Care for Undocumented Residents
T
By BRYNNA BOLT SENIOR
he California Senate passed a proposal to expand health care to people living in California without legal immigration status on June 2. The proposal is the first of its kind within the nation. Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) created the bill, titled Senate Bill 4, which passed through the Senate with a 28 to 11 vote. The bill proposes allowing undocumented immigrants to purchase health insurance on the state exchange under the United States Affordable Care Act, following the state’s receiving of a federal waiver. The bill also allows California residents under 18 who lack legal immigration status to access full health coverage under the state’s Medi-Cal program. The measure does not provide a state subsidy for undocumented immigrants, as it does for U.S. citizens and legal residents who qualify based on their income. However, it does make it so that unauthorized
STAFF WRITER
immigrants 19 and older who cannot afford health insurance can sign up for a program that would eventually guarantee them full coverage. “We are talking about our friends, we are talking about our neighbors and our families who are denied basic healthcare in the richest state of this union,” Lara said during the Senate meeting. An earlier draft of the bill proposed allowing all undocumented immigrants living in California to qualify for Medi-Cal, but Gov. Jerry Brown suggested that the bill would be too expensive. The exact cost of the amended bill is still unknown, but according to Lara’s spokesman Jesse Melgar, they are examining the costs. The bill will now be sent to the Assembly Rules Committee for approval. The committee is expected to vote on the issue before the end of the state’s legislative session in August. If the bill is passed, it will be sent to the various Assembly health and appropriations committees.
readers can contact Brynna Bolt
bbolt@ucsd.edu
UCSD researchers recently conducted a study analyzing how alcohol affects the teenage brain, including its impact on test performance. Their findings were published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Lead author, Professor Susan Tapert, told the UCSD Guardian that unlike previous research on this topic, this study observed a bigger pool of subjects for a longer period of time. “This study was a little bit larger than previous studies since it started out with 130 adolescents before they had tried any alcohol and followed them over several years,” Tapert said. Over time, some of those adolescents started to experiment with alcohol, and some even became heavy drinkers. Tapert also mentioned that the teenage brain is still developing and that alcohol can affect the development process. “Adolescent brains are still developing even into their early 20s, and alcohol can harm how the brain develops,” Tapert said. Tapert further elaborated about the maturational developments of the teenage brain in an interview with NPR. “First of all, the adolescent brain is still undergoing several maturational processes that render it more vulnerable to some of the effects of substances,” Tapert said. The team did not find any gender differences in terms of brain structure from the results. However, Tapert did note that there were several gender differences in terms of how alcohol affected boys and girls when performing tests. “Girls went downhill on visual spatial tests, whereas boys went downhill on attentive abilities,” Tapert said. Tapert further specified how alcohol affected girls in an interview with NPR. “For girls who had been engaging See ALCOHOL, page 3