Monthly Archives: April 2017

Telemundo anchor Julio Vaqueiro moderates a forum between Los Angeles City Council candidates Monica Rodriguez and Karo Torossian.

The final two candidates vying to represent Los Angeles City Council District 7 squared off in a forum on April 29 hosted by UCLA in partnership with Telemundo, Pacoima Neighborhood Council, Valley Industry Commerce Association (VICA), and Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND).

The general election to fill the seat will take place on May 16. Previously, there were 20 candidates vying for the seat during the March 7 primary, but no candidate received 50+ percent of the votes, so the top two candidates moved on to a runoff election.

Former Vice President of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works Monica Rodriguez received 27.82 percent of the vote in the primary, and Councilmember Paul Krekorian’s Director of Planning and Environment Karo Torossian received 16.46 percent.

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(from left) Los Angeles Community College District Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez, Senator Ricardo Lara, Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León, and Chancellor Gene Block.

On April 29, Moore Hall was the site of a meeting of the educational minds to discuss the implications the new presidential administration is having, and could potentially have, on the local K-12 and higher education communities in the coming years.

The program, called Moving Forward In Education: Responding to the Challenges of the Next Four Years, was presented by the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies’ (GSEIS) Education Leadership Program.

Keynote speakers included California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León, Senator Ricardo Lara, Los Angeles Community College District Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez and Dr. Pedro Noguera, who is the director for the Center for the Study of School Transformation at GSEIS.

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Assemblymember Reggie Jones Sawyer speaks with graduate students Brian Woodward and Angela Ocampo in his Sacramento office during a recent advocacy trip.

Four graduate students and two faculty administrators formed a UCLA coalition that traveled to Sacramento for the annual UC Graduate Student Research Day on April 19, with the goal to communicate the critical impacts of graduate research, taking it beyond the classroom and outside of the lab, and expressing its importance in the real world. They also made the case to state legislators for $9 million in state funding for 900 more graduate students system-wide.

“It was eye-opening for me,” said Brian Woodward, who is finishing up his graduate studies at the school of education’s urban planning division. “That was the first chance I’ve gotten to interact with representatives on a personal level. We’re trying to not only get these representatives interested in what we do as graduate students, and to see the value in why graduate students should be funded, but also trying to make a direct tie-in with what [research] we do as graduate students, and how that might benefit their respective districts, or even California as a whole.”

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UCLA Chancellor Gene Block bestows the UCLA Medal on Congressman John Lewis. (photos by Marc Roseboro)

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a living icon of the civil rights movement, relived for 1,300 rapt listeners in Royce Hall today key moments in the long struggle for equality, telling compelling personal stories — sometimes dark, but other times light-hearted anecdotes — taken right out of the pages of American history.

In a talk interrupted frequently by thunderous applause, standing ovations and laughter from the audience, Lewis vividly recalled from his childhood the warnings his family gave him to keep quiet when he questioned why black children had to sit in the balcony to watch movies at their local theater and why he was denied a library card when whites could borrow books from the local library.

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The Run As One 5K began at Jackie Robinson Stadium for the second year in a row. (all photos by Jonathan Van Dyke)

For Joe Thompson, the sight of so many veterans lined up for a morning run, jog or walk (with an assist from the occasional four-legged friend) was a sign that bringing veteran groups together was as needed as ever.

Thompson, membership coordinator for Team Rubicon, helped organize the Sixth Annual Run as One 5K on April 1, which began from Jackie Robinson Stadium, located on the campus of the West Los Angeles VA, for the second year in a row. The event is a collaborative effort between veteran organizations Team Rubicon, Mission Continues and Team Red, White and Blue. This year, Student Veterans Association (SVA) and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA) were also involved in the effort. There were approximately 150 veterans and civilians in attendance and more than 15 veterans-oriented vendors came to support and inform at the 5K.

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