UCLA in the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription. See more UCLA in the News.
UCLA names labor center building for James Lawson Jr. | Los Angeles Sentinel
Hundreds of people descended upon MacArthur Park on December 11 for the dedication of the UCLA James Lawson Worker Justice Center. The celebratory event recognized the enduring legacy of the nation’s premiere non-violence tactician — the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. Politicians, clergy and labor leaders were in the audience along with community members, trade unionists and social activists who all united in tribute of Lawson’s lifelong commitment to peace and justice. (Also: KCBS-TV and KNBC-TV.)
Mexican music icon Vicente Fernández dies at 81 | Los Angeles Times
“He represents the maintenance of a culture, the heart and soul of the masses,” said Steve Loza, a professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. “You want to feel proud of who you are? You want to tell your kids what it is to be Mexican and never lose it? All you have to do is listen to Vicente.”
TikTok and body image | USA Today
UCLA sociology professor Abigail Saguy says expansive beauty standards can be freeing but still present traps. “For whatever body type a lot of women are going to think is impossible or unattainable, there’s going to be some other woman for whom that body type is their body. It can be really liberating for it to be in fashion,” said Saguy, but she noted it’s a problem when the transitory nature of beauty ideals leaves people uncomfortable when their bodies aren’t in fashion.
School measles vaccination worked. Why not COVID? | Los Angeles Times
Dr. James Cherry, who has taught in UCLA’s pediatric infectious diseases department since 1973, can’t recall meeting any anti-vaccine Republicans during the 1977 pandemic. He finds it remarkable to hear Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida fighting mandates aimed at stopping a virus that has killed more than 790,000 Americans.
Hate speech on Space, Twitter’s new audio service | Washington Post
Sarah T. Roberts, professor at UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, said the Spaces problems reminded her of a pattern of similar mistakes by tech companies. Facebook raced, in 2015, to launch live video streaming, she said. Soon, people were filming themselves committing suicide, and murders and mass shootings were posted live. “Audio is the wild West,” she said.
At least 800,000 have died of COVID in U.S. | NBC News
“It’s a very sad moment, it’s mind-boggling,” said Dr. Michael Rodriguez, vice chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. “We’re beyond numb.” Rodriquez, who practiced in San Francisco during the AIDS crisis of the 1990s, said he struggles to grasp the enormity of 800,000 deaths.
Mystery of Imperial County’s high vaccination rate | New York Times
Dr. Timothy Brewer, an infectious-disease expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he thought that Imperial County might have embraced vaccines in part because of the horror its residents dealt with last year … “They were hit early, and they were hit hard, and it’s possible that because of that, people recognize the importance of getting vaccinated,” Brewer told me. “This wasn’t an abstract problem.”
Gift giving: Is it really the thought that counts? | Washington Post
Additionally, the researchers noted that experiential gifts can have a connecting effect even if the giver and the receiver aren’t sharing the experience. “The reason is because even though you aren’t with me, I’m thinking of you,” said [UCLA’s] Cassie Mogilner Holmes, who co-authored the 2016 paper and is an expert on happiness and the role of time. “I feel like you’re with me vicariously, and the emotions from consuming that experience lead to a greater sense of connection.”
Looking back: A year of COVID vaccines | USA Today
The day the vaccines were shipped out, the Rev. Arielphilip Flores sat with his two children at bedtime. Together, they offered prayers in Thanksgiving. “After I put them to sleep, I turned on the television and I was watching the trucks roll out and calculating how long it would take to get to Los Angeles,” said Flores, a chaplain at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Manchin pressured by colleagues on paid family leave | The Hill
The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health also confirmed to The Hill on Thursday that the United States is one of only 7 countries without national paid maternal leave. The others are the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.
Tornadoes: Severe weather ‘new normal’ | Agence France-Presse
Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist, tweeted Saturday in response to the study, saying that while the effect of climate change on severe weather like tornadoes is not well established, “there is a growing body of research (including this late-breaking paper) suggesting that warming likely does increase such risks in many regions globally.”
Labor-focused academics targeted for their research | Capital & Main
In California, the influential UCLA Labor Center — which conducted research on low-wage employment and led leadership development workshops — was targeted for elimination for years by Republican lawmakers and corporate power brokers. But allies successfully fought back and Gov. Newsom allocated $15 million last July to renovate the center’s historic building.
UCLA points way to longer-lasting COVID vaccine | KNX-FM
Rare, naturally occurring T cells could be the key to longer-lasting COVID-19 vaccines, according to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles … Working with T cells, researchers with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have found they are capable of targeting a protein found in SARS-CoV-2. (Also: Medical Xpress and ScienceDaily.)
Hidden toll of vaccine mandates on students of color | Education Week
(Commentary by UCLA’s Tyrone Howard) With surges of the COVID-19 virus popping up across the nation and new variants of the virus developing globally, the issue of student safety remains paramount for public schools. Since the Food and Drug Administration approved vaccinations for children ages 5–11 early last month, millions have received vaccinations. But the larger debate, and the potential disaster, is when more schools begin mandating vaccinations for students.
Alumni groups support undocumented graduates | Inside Higher Ed
When Yadira Hernández Pérez graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2015, she faced many questions common among new graduates, such as how to save for retirement, how to apply for graduate school and which health-care benefits to choose … So in 2017, she created UCLA’s Undocumented Alumni Association to help other undocumented graduates navigate the unique challenges they face in adapting to life after college.
Vaccination still not required for domestic travel | Daily Beast
“If you go on the CDC website and look at what they say for domestic travel, they say delay travel until you’re fully vaccinated — that would imply that they think vaccination is a good thing to have before you get on an airplane,” said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and of Medicine. “There’s no medical or public health reason to assume that traveling on a domestic airplane is different from traveling on an international airplane.”
Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ hits the big screen | CNN
Jonathan Kuntz, a film professor at UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV, noted that “musicals have been successful in many eras for many reasons” but “from the 1970s to the present, the American musical film has had only intermittent success.” “Part of this is due to the fragmentation of music interests,” he said. “In the past, everybody of every age could hum the tunes from ‘My Fair Lady,’ but today, there is no musical culture that unites the world in quite the same way.”
Granting noncitizens right to vote in local elections | NPR’s “All Things Considered”
“I think that the arguments in favor of noncitizen voting are largely persuasive. The one argument that’s often heard is that people who are taxed should be represented. The second is that people have a stake in decision-making in the sense that they have input that’s valuable,” said UCLA’s Hiroshi Motomura.
COVID cases surge, omicron variant spreads | NBC’s “Today”
“This virus loves cold environments where people are indoors in close proximity to each other. That is the best place for this virus to spread,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin (approx. 1:20 mark. Rimoin was also quoted by KTTV-TV.)