As we approach the end of December, its a natural time to look back at the year that was. In 2021, UCLA welcomed students, faculty, staff, alumni and visitors back to our home in Westwood, though of course it wasnt exactly the way things had been.
Different from pre-pandemic times: Masks remain present. Better (much better): UCLA officially opened the Black Bruin Resource Center.
Even with all the changes, UCLA persisted as a force for public good, guided by our mission of teaching, research and service. In the past year,professors continued helping us better understand our world with their research, students kept excelling in ways that make us proud and UCLA showed how it helpsmake Los Angeles a world-class city.
Here we present a look back at some of the most memorable UCLA moments and stories from 2021.
Reed Hutchinson/UCLA
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block welcomed students, faculty and staff back to campus for in-person classes after nearly a year and a half of remote learning with both a hopeful message and a surprise on Bruin Plaza. UCLA also opened two new residence halls, coming closer to fulfilling its promise of providing four years of housing to any first-year student who wants it or two years to any transfer student.
Christina House/Los Angeles Times. Photo use with permission.
UCLA Health oversees the largest adult ECMO program on the West Coast, treating up to 160 people per year. With the only ECMO ambulance in the region, UCLAs mobile team regularly stabilizes and transports patients from every hospital in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Blanca is a miracle of medicine, said Dr. Peyman Benharash, the surgical director who led the mobile ECMO team that sped a gravely ill Lopez from Glendale to UCLA in mid-August. After so much sorrow and loss, tonight was something we really needed to see.
Reed Hutchinson/UCLA
Seeing how many people showed up today to a two-hour program gives me so much excitement and hope for what the center is going to be like, said Amanda Finzi-Smith, interim program director of the center, or BBRC. I hope this is the trend: Were happy, excited, we love each other, come into the center and hang out. Thats what I hope is going to happen the rest of the week. If this is just the first one, I can only imagine what the rest of the weeks events are going to be like.
The opening of the Black Bruin Resource Center was the most public of the many ways UCLA furthered its progress toward fulfilling its previously announced commitment to making improving the campus environment for Black Bruins, which were detailed in its Rising to the Challenge announcement in 2020. Also, this yearstaff and faculty in the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies collaborated across campus to build an infrastructure that willsupport faculty hiring, seed grants, graduate student fellowships andpostdoctoral scholarships for scholars whose research serves the study of Black life.
Abraham Ramirez/UCLA
Ivy Reynolds
In 2021, Monti and colleagues reported that two more patients with severe brain injuries both had been in what scientists call a long-term minimally conscious state had made impressive progress thanks to the same technique.
I consider this new result much more significant because these chronic patients were much less likely to recover spontaneously than the acute patient we treated in 2016 and any recovery typically occurs slowly over several months and more typically years, not over days and weeks, as we show, said Monti, a professor of psychology and neurosurgery. Its very unlikely that our findings are simply due to spontaneous recovery.
Les Dunseith/UCLA
Over the next seven years, UCLA will provide 15 new faculty lines balanced across north and south campus for individuals whose teaching, scholarship and/or mentoring has ties to Latinx experiences. Deans of schools and divisions may match these appointments for a total of up to 30 new scholars. In addition, UCLA will support 20 two-year postdoctoral fellowships over the next five years, again balanced across north and south campus, for work related to Latinx issues. We will also establish a new funding pool of $250,000 per year over five years for seed research grants for basic and applied scholarship on Latinx populations.
The Chicano Studies Research Center, led by director Veronica Terriquez, will administer the hiring of faculty and fellows and will manage the seed research grants in collaboration with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities.
UCLA
For the 202021 fiscal year, UCLA received more than 75,000 gifts, nearly 95% of which were less than $10,000. Donors made 34,680 online gifts, and 24,353 alumni gave back to their alma mater. The campus also received 84 gifts of $1 million or more.
From meeting immediate needs to seeding recovery and rejuvenation, UCLAs diversity of donors and their passions and gifts are sustaining and advancing our invaluable work, said Rhea Turteltaub, UCLAs vice chancellor for external affairs. Thanks to their generous support, students, faculty and the campus stand ready to help society reemerge from the pandemic stronger than ever.
Meiko Arquillos
UCLA is also leading the rest of the University of California system in the number of employers registered at its virtual events. While other career centers have seen a decline in events and job offerings, the UCLA Career Center is thriving, scheduling multiple career fairs in various industries from business consulting and management to engineering and technology and registering almost double the number of employers at its events compared to the other UCs.
Leroy Hamilton
Archiving the Age of Mass Incarceration is being funded in part by a three-year, $3.65 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and it will bring together expertise from the UCLA Institute of American Cultures four ethnic studies centers and their established connections to local advocacy groups.
The project builds off of the work of the award-winning UCLA-based Million Dollar Hoods research project, a community-driven initiative that began in 2016 to map the fiscal and human cost of mass incarceration in Los Angeles.
Ryan Young
But this is not only a story about health disparities between whites and racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. A deeper look at the data reveals that NHPIs are suffering disproportionately compared not only to white people but also compared to other Asians. In fact, the infection and mortality rates for Pacific Islanders are alarmingly singular.
There are 1.4 million Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders living in the United States. In 11 of the 16 states that track their death rates separately from other Asians, NHPIs are dying at the highest rates of any racial or ethnic group. For doctors, public health experts and, most importantly, the people in those communities, the questions are why, and what can be done?
At UCLA, a groundbreaking study on the tragic impact of COVID-19 on Pacific Islander communities may help researchers and clinicians better understand the viruss effects on this population and provide more focused treatment as the battle against the disease enters a decisive phase.
Photo courtesy of Catharyn Hayne
iStock.com/golero
The initiative is being backed by an initial three-year, $10 million commitment. One of the first manifestations of that investment will be a campuswide organizational structure called DataX Homeworld.
Through DataX Homeworld, UCLA will hire 18 new faculty members whose appointments will be shared with existing academic departments and will create six interdisciplinary DataX cluster courses on topics of societal or scientific importance that will be accessible to students without extensive technical backgrounds. The campus also will support 18 new interdisciplinary postdoctoral fellowships, as well as graduate student researchers and research working groups.
They seek to shine a light on the brutality and inhumanity experienced by Native people at Californias missions during Spanish colonization and beyond. To tell truths about trauma, enslavement, genocide and abuse. The truth around centuries of intentional obfuscations. Truth about the ongoing impact of settler colonialism.
Also:For a bellwether of progress in LGBTQ rights, look to UCLAs Williams Institute
Brett Affrunti
Changes are afoot that could maybe just maybe enable the village to evolve into a lively, college-friendly, 21st-century neighborhood. They range from the pandemic-induced loosening of city restrictions on outdoor dining to the Metro Purple Line stop coming to the intersection of Westwood and Wilshire boulevards. The Hammer Museum at UCLA is remodeling to become more inviting. UCLA is transforming the historic Crest Westwood Theatre south of Wilshire into the Nimoy Theater for live performances. And the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games are coming in 2028.
iStock.com/FlamingoImages
The indignities and humiliations Black men even those who have made it regularly endure have long been seen as part and parcel of life in the United States among the Black community, a sort of Black tax that takes a heavy toll on physical and mental health.
A UCLA-led study reveals these hidden costs of being Black in America. Researchers who analyzed a national sample of the views of Black men and white men found that Black men of all income levels reported experiencing higher levels of discrimination than their white counterparts.
Black men face constant experiences of discrimination and disappointment when they try to contribute. They are treated like criminals in a society where they often are not allowed to achieve their full potential, said the studys co-senior author, Vickie Mays, a professor of psychology in the UCLA College and of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
tap10/123rf
The study found that the number of COVID-19 cases doubled and the number of deaths attributable to the disease increased fivefold in the four-month period after eviction moratoriums expired.
Those figures suggest that during the summer of 2020, there were 433,700 more COVID-19 cases and 10,700 more deaths in the U.S. than there would have been had moratoriums continued.
UCLA
The new department brings together the existing departments of Germanic languages, French and Francophone studies, Italian and Scandinavian, but aims to offer a wider and more holistic course of study, focusing on the breadth of languages and cultures across Europe.
The term transcultural emphasizes shared European roots and an expanded focus on the perspectives of filmmakers, writers and theorists from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and elsewhere. This approach allows for a more pointed, rigorous and comprehensive understanding of history and a more accurate contextualization of the European experience and legacy in the world.
Show Imaging
We build machines based on the materials we have, and steel and rubber have actually worked very well, says Qibing Pei, professor of materials science and engineering. However, were also limited by our materials, and certain jobs are impossible for robots [that exist] right now. So people like me are looking at developing soft materials and devices.
Todays innovators envision soft robots capable of performing tasks that benefit human health and well-being and that advance the discovery of the unknown. Pei and his colleagues are beginning to figure out what those soft robots will be made of, and how they will move.
NASA
Rong Fu, a UCLA professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and the studys corresponding author, said the trend is likely to worsen in the years ahead. I am afraid that the record fire seasons in recent years are only the beginning of what will come, due to climate change, and our society is not prepared for the rapid increase of weather contributing to wildfires in the American West.
The dramatic increase in destruction caused by wildfires is borne out by U.S. Geological Survey data. In the 17 years from 1984 to 2000, the average burned area in 11 western states was 1.69 million acres per year. For the next 17 years, through 2018, the average burned area was approximately 3.35 million acres per year. And in 2020, according to a National Interagency Coordination Center report, the amount of land burned by wildfires in the West reached 8.8 million acres an area larger than the state of Maryland.
UCLA Athletics
As we honor distinguished African Americans during Black History Month, the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences and the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have established a fund to support the departments efforts to advance equity, diversity and inclusion, especially through supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds. To recognize his embodiment of true Bruin spirit, they have named it the James. E. LuValle Fund for Excellence in Chemistry. The division and the department will each match donations to the fund.
Jon Stich
In the beginning, things were working pretty well in terms of outreach, but retention became a big concern, says Charles Alexander, AAP director and associate vice provost for student diversity. At that time, students were getting in, but they werent staying. You can recruit people, but if theyre not prepared to do the work or theyre not able to do the work, then you have to provide some support.
As a result, AAP is an expansive program with a multifaceted mission. The program advocates and facilitates access for students who have been historically underrepresented in higher education through the Vice-Provosts Initiative for Pre-College Scholars program. A partnership between UCLA and Los Angeles County school districts, VIPS assists high school students in becoming competitively eligible for admission to UCLA and other top universities. In addition, AAPs Center for Community College Partnerships works with California community colleges to assist transfer students with academic preparation and competitiveness.
iStock.com/Ian Dyball
Not a chance: Animals laugh too, researchers have observed. In an article published in the journal Bioacoustics, graduate student Sasha Winkler and Professor Greg Bryant take a closer look at the phenomenon of laughter across the animal kingdom.
They found such vocal play behavior documented in at least 65 species. That list includes a variety of primates, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, and mongooses, as well as three bird species, including parakeets and Australian magpies.
Courtesy of Scripps Research Institute (Patapoutian), Andrew Brodhead (Imbens)
Alumnus Ardem Patapoutian (pictured at left), a professor of neuroscience at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, shared the prize in physiology or medicine with David Julius, a UC San Francisco professor of physiology, for their discoveries of receptors in the body that respond to temperature and touch.
Patapoutian, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1967, came to the United States in 1986 and earned his bachelors degree in molecular, cell and developmental biology at UCLA in 1990. His advisor was the late Judith Lengyel, herself a UCLA alumna, who was a professor at UCLA from 1976 to 2004. It was as a UCLA undergraduate that Patapoutian began working in a research laboratory.
Former UCLA faculty member Guido Imbens, right, shared half the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Joshua Angrist, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now a Stanford University professor, Imbens taught at UCLA from 1997 to 2001.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presented the award to Imbens and Angrist for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships. The other half of the prize went to David Card of UC Berkeley for his empirical contributions to labour economics.
David Greenwald/The Peoples Vanguard of Davis
Paul Abramson, a UCLA professor of psychology who was hired as an expert by Caldwells legal team to assess the psychological harm Caldwell suffered, conducted 20 extensive interviews with Caldwell between 2015 and 2020, in addition to interviewing prison correctional officers and reviewing court hearings and decisions, depositions, psychological testing results and experts reports.
In a paper published in the peer-reviewed Wrongful Conviction Law Review, Abramson provides an overview of the case and a comprehensive psychological analysis detailing the devastating and ongoing effects of Caldwells wrongful conviction and imprisonment. He also examines the historically contentious relations between police and communities of color and asks why corrupt and abusive officers rarely face punishment for their actions.
Verlena Johnson
But outside of her day job, Johnson is a mixed-media visual artist who creates vivid acrylic and watercolor paintings filled with symbolism. She has a spiritual practice that incorporates Reiki and meditation, has published a childrens book starring her 11-year-old son, Kai, and has been active in promoting diversity on college campuses.
Johnsons paintings are often self-portraits, and many feature her son. She weaves in symbols that relate to her African ancestry, such as Adinkra symbols from Ghana, which are often printed onto fabrics or carved into pottery and carry proverbial meaning.
I remember being in sculpture school as an undergraduate and one of the students, or several of them, asked me why all my subjects were Black. And I looked at them and I said, Well, why are all your subjects white? To which of course they didnt even have a response or answer. But because most of my portraiture are self-portraits, of course theyre going to be Black, she said. Johnson says she recognizes the power of representation and loves celebrating Blackness and Black lives.
Read the rest here:
- Greenwood Acquires Private National Club The Gathering Spot In Black-Owned Business Merger - Because of Them We Can - May 15th, 2022
- What It Looks Like to Build a Pro-Black Organization - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly - May 15th, 2022
- Colorado Springs leaders look to the future through the lens of an aging population, education and affordable housing - Colorado Public Radio - May 15th, 2022
- A New Endeavor: Introducing the Fifth District Survey of Community College Outcomes - Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond - May 15th, 2022
- C4GS-ZEDlife Wins $1M Challenge to Bring Power for the People Through Innovative Sustainable Communities - openPR - May 15th, 2022
- The End-of-Year Mental Health Check - Tolerance.org - May 15th, 2022
- New book's globetrotting tour of boreal forests establishes their value to life on Earth - Anchorage Daily News - May 15th, 2022
- Local advocates call on state leaders to expand housing options for people with disabilities - WXXI News - May 13th, 2022
- Greenwood, Inc. Acquires The Gathering Spot Creating the Largest Combined Fintech and Community Platform for Blacks and Minorities - Business Wire - May 13th, 2022
- Kari Morissette, director of Church of Safe Injection, dead at 33 - Yahoo News - May 13th, 2022
- MOBIfest Presented by Gilead Sciences, Inc. Returns to New York with Collection of Celebrations and Experiences June 5 - 12 - Yahoo Finance - May 13th, 2022
- Heritage Calgary Unveils Framework for Naming, Renaming, Commemoration, and Removal in Calgary - Yahoo Finance - May 13th, 2022
- Progress forecast for river projects - Alton Telegraph - May 13th, 2022
- Meet the Candidates: Danville mayor and commissioners - The Advocate-Messenger - Danville Advocate - May 13th, 2022
- It's time for Congress to ban toxic 'forever chemicals' from food packaging - Food Safety News - May 13th, 2022
- 7 Characteristics of an Activist and Unapologetic Leader: Aint No Code-switching or Dispositional Passing Involved - Diverse: Issues in Higher... - May 13th, 2022
- Jeff Bezos and Alexis Ohanian, are pouring $35 million into NYC's childcare crisis - Business Insider Africa - May 13th, 2022
- Single Moms Buy Home in DC to Save Costs, Build Community - NBC4 Washington - May 7th, 2022
- Consensus approach proposed to protect human health from intentional and wild forest fires - University of Washington - May 7th, 2022
- The allure of CommuneTok - Fast Company - May 7th, 2022
- Inclusive Prosperity Capital, Inc. raises $13 Million from MacArthur, McKnight, and Kresge Foundations to support the deployment of clean energy... - May 7th, 2022
- Dear The Beauster: Give Me a Reason for Some Hope! - South Seattle Emerald - May 7th, 2022
- My year of service has shown me the many facets of social justice work - Global Sisters Report - May 7th, 2022
- CSRWire - Arbor Day Foundation Partners With NatureQuant to Quantify Tree's Impact on Health in Neighborhoods - CSRwire.com - May 7th, 2022
- Community Foundation marks 50 years of service - Florida Weekly - May 7th, 2022
- New ACLU executive director reflects on the struggles facing Wisconsin - Wisconsin Examiner - May 7th, 2022
- Ethics in Geography | The UCSB Current - The UCSB Current - May 7th, 2022
- 5 Ways To Support Teacher Well-Being - CZI Blog - Chan Zuckerberg Initiative - May 7th, 2022
- Hurdle Health to Host Second Annual Black Mental Health Roundtable at the U.S. Capitol in Collaboration with NAMI, APA and the Kennedy-Satcher Center... - May 7th, 2022
- Black Students in Illinois are far more likely to be ticketed by police for school behavior than white students - KTVI Fox 2 St. Louis - May 7th, 2022
- What does Walmart do for local communities? - May 3rd, 2022
- Statement of recognition and pursuit of reconciliation for Vermont's Abenaki People - Vermont Biz - May 3rd, 2022
- Cantine's Island and the Hudson Valleys CoHousing Movement - Chronogram - May 3rd, 2022
- Rolanda Mitchell is Using Diversity, Equity and Inclusion To Help Build Strong Educational Systems in K-12 Schools and Higher Education - NC State... - May 3rd, 2022
- Through community partnerships, Hartford schools meet myriad needs from food to uniforms, child care, martial arts and mindfulness - Hartford Courant - May 3rd, 2022
- Gathering in Person, Community College Leaders Shared Advice for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education - May 3rd, 2022
- Mental health in Asian American communities: Why we must break the silence together - Yahoo News - May 3rd, 2022
- DCF Announces Robust Child and Family Well-Being Initiative to Better Support Families - Alachua Chronicle - May 3rd, 2022
- MOBI Makes Their Post-Pandemic NYC Debut - PR Newswire - May 3rd, 2022
- First Horizon Recognized for Investment in Women - Yahoo Finance - May 3rd, 2022
- Two fires on the Gila slow down - Silvercity Daily Press - Silver City Daily Press and Independent - May 3rd, 2022
- Major downtown institutions come together to address race equity and institutional needs - Weekly Challenger - May 3rd, 2022
- Report Sheds New Light on the Risks of Open Core Software - CIO Dive - May 3rd, 2022
- Women's work: 42 years of activism chronicled in new website for The Women's Project - Arkansas Online - May 3rd, 2022
- Baltimore's fight against crime gets $7.9M federal shot in the arm - WBAL TV Baltimore - May 3rd, 2022
- UCLA Chancellor Gene Block joins Future U podcast to discuss the future of higher education | UCLA - UCLA Newsroom - May 3rd, 2022
- Preventing Water Conflict Through Dialogue - New Security Beat - May 3rd, 2022
- How I became one of the only Latina deans in the world of higher ed - MSNBC - May 3rd, 2022
- DHS watchdog says Trump's acting DHS secretary changed intel report on Russian interference in 2020 election - CBS News - May 3rd, 2022
- Sisterhood in the Workplace: Supporting Black and Latina Women beyond Women's History Month - The Chicago Cusader - May 3rd, 2022
- Central Coast mental health resources and organizations - KSBW Monterey - May 3rd, 2022
- How the term 'groomer' got weaponised by the anti-LGBTQ community - Screen Shot - May 3rd, 2022
- RREAF Communities Announces Master Planned Community Between Austin and San Antonio - PR Newswire - April 29th, 2022
- RBC Community Junior Golf partners with publicly accessible golf courses to build greater diversity and inclusivity in the sport - Canada NewsWire - April 29th, 2022
- Local Businesses Wear Purple in Support of "Justice for Lily" Day - OnFocus - April 29th, 2022
- Lily Peters Was Strangled, Bludgeoned And Raped By 14-Year-Old Boy: Prosecutor - TooFab - April 29th, 2022
- HBCUs and Public Interest Technology - The Perfect Match - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education - April 29th, 2022
- WAVE Project brings showers and essentials, including love and kindness to metro Detroiters in need - Second Wave Media - April 29th, 2022
- Report: To keep up with infrastructure maintenance costs, local governments need to rethink land use policies - American City & County - April 29th, 2022
- Kris Manjapra On The Troubled Legacy Of Emancipation - BBC History Magazine - April 29th, 2022
- First-Ever Black-Owned Animation Network Set to Launch in Summer 2022 - Yahoo Finance - April 29th, 2022
- Clarion Media Announces Rebrand To Fragment Media Group - PR Web - April 29th, 2022
- Situationist Funhouse: Art's Complicated Role in Redeveloping Cities - ArchDaily - April 29th, 2022
- VCU receives grant to curb gun violence in Richmond - The Commonwealth Times - April 29th, 2022
- Q&A: Multnomah County Sheriff candidates on the issues - Portland Tribune - April 29th, 2022
- Book looks at the unexplored impact of utopian ideas on the civil rights movement - University at Buffalo - April 27th, 2022
- Senior Living - the importance of intentional design - Shaw Local - April 27th, 2022
- $2.7 million initiative to spur real estate development on South and West sides - Chicago Sun-Times - April 27th, 2022
- Let's get Earth Day right by focusing on low-income communities and people of color - Bangor Daily News - April 27th, 2022
- Operation ReTree Baltimore County focusing on underserved communities - WBAL TV Baltimore - April 27th, 2022
- The Story Continues: Day 2 from the 2022 RILA Asset Protection Conference - Loss Prevention Magazine - April 27th, 2022
- Rote Running with the Gobbos - Hipsters of the Coast - Hipsters of the Coast - April 27th, 2022
- PRG and The Forum Group Partner to Form First Global Minority-Owned Production Solutions Company - PR Newswire - April 27th, 2022
- Consider the Least of These: Sternberg's Three Principles of Love and COVID-19 - ChristianityToday.com - April 27th, 2022
- College of the Muscogee Nation hosts McGirt Ruling Panel - Muscogee Nation News - April 27th, 2022
- Black Girl Freedom Fund Invests Over $4 Million In 68 Organizations, Part Of #1Billion4BlackGirls Campaign - Forbes - April 27th, 2022
- Mayor - News - April 2022 - THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF $7.4 MILLION ROADWAY AND WATER LINE PROJECT IN THE T - City of New Orleans - April 27th, 2022
- Advocates Urge Passage of Legislation Expanding and Strengthening Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program - InsiderNJ - April 27th, 2022
- Women Improving Their Lives Through Networks: A Conversation - Gallup - April 27th, 2022
- New LEDA head unveils three-year strategic plan to position parish in coming decades - The Advocate - April 27th, 2022