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’s disability studies major is the first of its kind | Los Angeles Times
UCLA junior Vivek Chotai doesn’t plan to pursue his school’s new disability studies major — the first of its kind at any public university in the state — or even take classes in it. Yet for the 21-year-old leukemia survivor and thousands of other disabled students across the University of California and California State University systems, the program is a critical victory in a decades-long battle for visibility and recognition. (UCLA’s Victoria Marks was quoted.)
3 Black women took on breast cancer in a failed system | The Hill
(Commentary co-written by UCLA’s Dr. Medell Briggs-Malonson) As doctors working to change America’s separate and unequal health care system, we know how serious breast cancer can be for Black women. Although prevalence is slightly lower, outcomes are much worse, with a 41 percent higher mortality rate than for white women. We had to intervene.
Overdose deaths have soared among pregnant people | Washington Post
“For a lot of pregnant and postpartum people, disclosing drug use might result in your child being taken away, so there is a lot of stigma beyond just the standard amount of stigma you get,” said Chelsea Shover, an epidemiologist and assistant professor in residence at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine.
Democracy faces two threats. Trump is only one of them. | Washington Post
Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, wrote in the Election Law Blog that the ruling would eliminate the bulk of the cases aimed at protecting voting rights because “the vast majority of claims to enforce section 2 of the Voting Rights Act are brought by private plaintiffs, not the Department of Justice with limited resources.”
How Gen Z seeks solace in media amid loneliness | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This year’s “Teens and Screens” report, released by the University of California Los Angeles, found that the Gen Z sex aversion was strong: most felt that frisky movie and TV scenes were gratuitous and made them uncomfortable … “While it’s true that adolescents want less sex on TV and in movies, what the survey is really saying is that they want more and different kinds of relationships reflected in the media they watch,” Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, a co-author of the UCLA study, explained. “We know that young people are suffering an epidemic of loneliness and they’re seeking modeling in the art they consume.”
Fears of Hollywood backsliding on diversity | Washington Post
UCLA has been conducting ongoing studies of Hollywood diversity. Its latest release, which focused on television and was just issued in November, found that people of color were underrepresented on nearly every front during the 2020-2021 television season. The study identified 12 key television jobs — from broadcast lead actors to credited writers on digital productions — and found only two where minorities kept pace with their White counterparts.
Fabricating an artificial emergency isn’t intelligent | The Hill
The order does not indicate how the government will use the mandated reports, nor does it explain how it will protect highly sensitive information from competitors and foreign hackers. John Villasenor, co-director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy, notes that the order “mandates the creation of what amounts to a target list for any geopolitical adversary that might want to engage in cyber espionage or launch a large-scale cyberattack on U.S. AI computing infrastructure.”
The 10 Freeway is open. But is it safe to drive? | LAist
John Wallace is a civil and environmental engineering professor at UCLA and an expert in reinforced concrete structures, primarily on the seismic design end of buildings and bridges. He says that load capacity is key, and that engineers will be looking at repairs through that for standard driving use and for earthquake safety.
Complaints about parking problems at popular L.A. mall | KNBC-TV
“Looking at the signage, it’s not clear,” said Professor Aimee Rossi, chair in management at the UCLA Anderson School and an expert in consumer behavior and decision making. “This policy is kind of counterintuitive, where you are effectively punishing consumers for staying longer.”
With evictions on the rise, L.A. lawyers volunteer to defend tenants | LAist
Unlike in criminal court, where the accused are given public defenders if they can’t afford to pay for an attorney, tenants at risk of losing their housing in eviction court have no right to free legal representation. As a result, most tenants have to fight evictions on their own, facing landlords who have attorneys 95% of the time, according to UCLA researchers.
L.A. student wins settlement in milk alternative dispute | Los Angeles Times
Eugene Volokh, who teaches 1st Amendment law at UCLA, said Williamson and the Physicians Committee will have a harder time arguing their case against the USDA because the federal policies limiting speech apply to schools, not students. “The federal law basically constrains what schools say; it doesn’t constrain what students say,” Volokh said. “Under these circumstances, I very much doubt Williamson and the Physicians Committee will be able to get the relief they seek against the federal government because they’re not the school.”
Is surgery safer when patient, surgeon are same gender? | HealthDay News
A study from University of California Los Angeles researchers found little evidence that patient-surgeon “gender concordance” matters to outcomes. “Given that the difference in patient mortality [death] between female and male surgeons was small, when choosing a surgeon, patients should take into account factors beyond the gender of the surgeon,” advised study senior author Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa. He’s associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. (Also: KCAL-TV.)
New ‘game-changing’ dental implant technology | Medical Xpress
A team of UCLA School of Dentistry researchers led by [Dr.] Takahiro Ogawa has culminated a decade of dental implant research with the development of a cutting-edge technology that ensures near-perfect osseointegration, faster healing times and significantly reduced complications for patients. (Ogawa was quoted.)
Gene therapy rebuilds immune system for boy | Washington Post
“We’ve got these transformative, miraculous therapies that don’t fit in anyone’s business model,” said Donald Kohn, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the University of California at Los Angeles who has been treating patients with the experimental therapy, with dwindling funds. “It’s at a paradoxical state. It’s hard to get a research grant when you’ve kind of proven it’s effective.”
