Noor Gill and Amy Lee discussed normcore fashion in their May 22 A&E column, “Normcore trend embraces ironic take on fashion.” However, their article fails to comment upon the cultural insensitivity of the so-called “trend,” which is based on the popular belief that the most fashionable thing to be is “normal.” Normcore is a practical joke that isn’t funny. Read more...

We, the undersigned graduate students and teaching assistants in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCLA, want to express our deep concern regarding the imminent “hybridization” of the department’s lower-division language program, which will take effect during the fall 2014 quarter. Read more...

In an email statement to the campus community on May 16, Chancellor Gene Block stressed the importance of civil discourse in campus conversation, saying, “Political speech that stigmatizes or casts aspersions on individuals or particular groups does not promote healthy debate but debases it by trying to intimidate individuals and groups.” By attempting to disguise political speech in a cloak of ethicality and morality, the Students for Justice in Palestine debased the healthy debate that should take place on our campus by intimidating two individuals, Lauren Rogers and Sunny Singh. Read more...

I often imagine myself, somewhat delusionally, to dwell in the sane center in the battleground that is the Israeli-Palestinian debate in this country. Though branded by some on the right as a self-hating anti-Semite and by some fellow travelers on the left as a Zionist propagandist in disguise, I can’t help but feel that the two extremes on the ideological spectrum consistently fail to get it right. Read more...