Saturday, July 11

Make the most of college challenges

Welcome to orientation. By now, you’ve probably noticed a few things about UCLA. For one, this isn’t your old high school. You will find yourself one of hundreds in the typical lecture hall, one in a hundred on your dorm floor and one of three in your own room. Read more...




Community ties are UCLA’s best asset

It was my first regents meeting. Not knowing where to go, I went in through the public entrance. After passing through the metal detector, the UCPD patted me down and I entered the room. There was a velvet rope that separated the University officials from the public. When I tried to cross this velvet rope to join the Board, I was immediately stopped by a UCPD officer, who warned me in a stern tone, “You don’t belong there.” Indeed, thinking about who my “colleagues” were to be ““ they were the social elite, political heavyweights, probably worth more than the GDP of a small country ““ I didn’t belong on the Board. As a middle-to-working class Pilipino suburban “kid,” I knew what I was getting into but didn’t know if I could handle it. I was obsessed with the question, “How can I push an agenda here?” I felt this intense burden to get something done with the time I had. With over 160,000 UC students, and only one on the Board, it would be a disgrace and disservice if this university remained unchanged on my watch. Read more...



Bye-lines: No danger in jumping

Jumping blindly into a big canyon in Switzerland can evoke that life-flashing-before-your-eyes feeling that I hope you won’t feel too often. But there I was, attached to an eerily long but durable cord that would keep me from smashing into the canyon floor, canyon wall, jagged rocks, etc. Read more...


Bye-lines: Break rules for the right reasons

All energy flows according to the Great Magnet. What a fool I was to defy Him.” Some broke and peyote-mad Shaman Prince in goat leggings and a Viking helmet told me this at the roulette wheel in an American Indian casino somewhere in New Mexico. Read more...