UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald today (Jan. 28) announced a stronger academic affiliation to benefit our nation’s veterans as UCLA commits to annually providing $1.15 million in support of new programs and services, approximately $200,000 of in-kind contributions and $300,000 a year in fair-market rent for continued use of Jackie Robinson Stadium. New and expanded services will include mental health, family support, legal advocacy and recreation services.
Monthly Archives: January 2016
VA Secretary McDonald Implores Landlords To Rent To Veterans
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald speaks with veteran James Stewart after a special program on housing solutions for veterans. (photo by Jonathan Van Dyke)
Los Angeles service providers and the city and county housing authorities have been coming together to reach the White House and Veterans Administration’s goal to end veterans homelessness by 2015, successfully housing over 300 veterans every month.
Unfortunately, for this region, there is still a long way to go.
“What Los Angeles has to do in a month to work toward ending veterans homelessness, other cities need to do in a year, or had to do to complete their entire program,” said VA Secretary Robert McDonald, who was on the UCLA campus Thursday encouraging landlords to rent to veterans through the HUD-VASH voucher program, which pays fair market rates for rental units. He opened by thanking UCLA for hosting the meeting and acknowledged the decades long partnership between UCLA and the VA.
UCLA Advocate In Action: Council President Herb Wesson Looks To Inspire Next Leaders
Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson examines an event badge that brings back memories about his California Assembly District Inauguration ceremony that took place at UCLA’s Royce Hall. (photo by Jonathan Van Dyke)
Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson was once that kid in the audience — antsy and uninterested.
Sure, his upbringing included plenty of civic engagement. His father coached youth sports and stayed active in the community. Wesson remembers passing out flyers as a kid in Cleveland, Ohio in support of Charles Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major city.
“My family, historically, we were engaged,” Wesson said. “It was at a time when we had a lot of civic courses and social studies. It was a way to connect with local governments and what have you.”
And yet, it wasn’t until he went to college, and still then, Wesson often found himself in the crowd, looking for an exit strategy. Then one day, his fraternity was hosting special speaker: Northern California’s first black Congress member, Ron Dellums.
UCLA Hosts California’s Top Educators On Every Student Succeeds Act
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson was one of many major California educators in attendance at a special meeting on the ESSA. (photo by Jonathan Van Dyke)
Many K-12 educators in California have long called for more local control and the ability to better cater to their specific students and issues, hoping to improve educational equity and equality now and into the future.
According to California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, the No Child Left Behind Act had unrealistic goals, too much testing, too much federal government and not enough support. It’s replacement — ESSA, or the Every Student Succeeds Act — was signed into law by President Barack Obama at the end of last year as a bipartisan measure that aims to cement a new national education law and give a longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students.
“I am heartened by the fact that ESSA takes a different approach,” Torlakson said, during his opening comments at a national meeting hosted Jan. 19 at UCLA’s Carnesale Commons.
UCLA Millennials Have Their Say With Future Forum Congress Members
U.S. Reps. Eric Swalwell, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Aguilar, and Ted Lieu address students at the UCLA Future Forum. (photo by Jonathan Van Dyke)
Four of the youngest members of Congress visited with UCLA students on Jan. 14, opening up a dialogue on student debt, voting habits, immigration and important research projects taking place on campus.
The members are part of the Future Forum, a group of 17 of the youngest Democratic representatives who have met over the last year with thousands of college students and young professionals across the country with the hope of building civic engagement and inspiring future leaders among millennials.
“We thought we were not doing a good enough job talking to the younger and future generation,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said as he opened up the forum in front of more than 75 students in Kerckhoff Hall.
UCLA students visit nation’s capital with chancellor to examine race, inclusion
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block takes a selfie with a delegation visiting Washington, D.C., that included 15 undergraduate student leaders.
UCLA senior Christian Green had high expectations when he traveled to Washington, D.C., with Chancellor Gene Block and student leaders to examine race, immigration and other important issues with leaders from Congress, the White House, and cultural and advocacy groups.
“I left in hopes of gaining an understanding of what this ideal of diversity really meant to the people on Capitol Hill, and to our chancellor, the faculty and my fellow student leaders on this trip,” said Green, a fourth-year sociology and African-American studies major who is external relations director for the pre-law fraternity Kappa Alpha Phi. “I wanted to leave D.C. feeling empowered as a leader here at UCLA … and that we, as a campus, could create this ideal of solidarity here at UCLA.”
Green, active with a student group that supports African-American transfer students like him, said this week that his “expectations were far surpassed.”