UCLA Vigil

Photo by: Jessica Lum

Samara Leader, a second-year political science student and Sarah Peters, a first-year mathematics and economics student share in a moment of silence.

Jessica Lum

The Daily Bruin

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

UCLA Vigil

Photo by: Leigh Alvarez

Students comfort each other during yesterday&#39;s candlelight vigil held in memory of the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting.

Alvarez

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

UCLA Vigil

Photo by: Leigh Alvarez

Reider Larsen, a first-year undeclared student, signs a quilt Thursday night that will be sent to Virginia Tech. An alumna of Virginia Tech attended the vigil to thank UCLA.

Leigh Alvarez

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

UCLA Vigil

Photo by: Jessica Lum

Students stand in De Neve Plaza on Thursday night for a vigil in memory of those who lost their lives in Monday&#39;s shootings at Virginia Tech. Speakers and students expressed sympathy for the victims&#39; families and for the university.

Jessica Lum

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

Bruins gather to grieve

By Carolyn McGough
Friday, April 20, 2007

Tears rolled down many UCLA community members&#39; faces in De Neve Plaza on Thursday night, as hundreds gathered to honor the memory of the victims of the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Following Monday morning&#39;s shootings - in which 33 were killed, including professors and students - a vigil was planned by the Office of Residential Life and the Undergraduate Students Association Council.

Five hundred tea candles were distributed before the somber ceremony began, but there still were not enough for each person in the huge crowd that gathered, said USAC President Marwa Kaisey.

Kaisey was the first to speak, as she strived to bring community members together and encouraged them to share feelings.

"We want to show Virginia Tech support, to show that the Bruins care and have been touched by the tragedy," Kaisey said.

During the ceremony, Kaisey read the names of each of the victims in an effort to "humanize the tragedy."

A quilt will be sent to Virginia Tech to show that UCLA identifies with and cares for the Blacksburg, Va. school, she said.

Students were invited to decorate a patch for the quilt and become a direct part of the support.

Former member of the Peace Corps and UCLA Ombudsperson Donald Hartsock also spoke. He emphasized the close bond UCLA and Virginia Tech have with each other, both great American universities.

"Respectfully, I say &#39;Go Hokies.&#39; And I say to us now, &#39;Go Bruins.&#39; We are family," he said.

This is the largest shooting massacre in the United States that has occurred on another college campus - a campus not too unlike UCLA, she said.

Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student at Virginia Tech, opened fire Monday morning in two buildings, killing two students in a dorm room and then 30 more in one of the buildings on campus. Afterward, Seung-Hui then proceeded to kill himself.

The gunman had mailed NBC a package containing a 23-page written statement, which exemplified a struggle he had between himself and his surrounding environment. Photos and videos were also sent of himself holding and aiming guns.

Since the event, many universities and students across the country have shown their support for the Virginia Tech community through social-networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Some students have also changed their profile pictures to Virginia Tech insignias.

Kristin Gardner, a Virginia Tech alumna from the class of 2003, attended the vigil to thank UCLA for its consideration.

Encouraging all to wear orange and maroon - the colors of Virginia Tech - students and alumni of the university have declared today as "Hokie Hope Day," she said.

Students were encouraged to seek support from friends, family and university resources, said Director of Student Psychological Services Elizabeth Gong-Guy.

"SPS wishes to offer you whatever support you need. But the best support really does come from your peers," she said.

A theme of the night portrayed by speeches and the somber environment was the closeness between UCLA and Virginia Tech students.

"Even though it seems so far away, it&#39;s an American university," said Angie Noffsinger, a fourth-year communication studies student.

"It&#39;s important for us to show that at UCLA we identify with the students at Virginia Tech."

--

Original Source:<a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/apr/20/bruins_gather_grieve/>April 20, 2007</a>

Carolyn McGough,

The Daily Bruin

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

Media doesn&#39;t always know best

By Mark Humphrey
Monday, April 23, 2007

It&#39;s no secret that the news media exercises bad judgment at times.

Granted, we, as journalists, try to make informed decisions about what to cover and how. For example, during summer training at the Daily Bruin, we did a news-judgment exercise involving an actual story.

The story was about a baby who had been murdered by her father, and the story also highlighted how a welfare program had failed the family. The issue was whether to run a photo of a coroner holding a bag that had the baby&#39;s body in it - was the photo just simply shocking, or did it further the purpose of the story?

We ultimately decided we would run the photo. Our reasoning was that the photo, while shocking and potentially in poor taste, further hammered home the main point of the story - how social programs had failed this family so terribly.

Judging by the mainstream media&#39;s recent coverage of certain events, I think many journalists would do well to take part in this same exercise.

In the past few weeks we&#39;ve been bombarded by three stories. First came radio douche bag Don Imus&#39; derogatory remarks about the Rutgers women&#39;s basketball team. Then came NBC&#39;s decision to broadcast Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui&#39;s videotaped rantings. Finally, there came Alec Baldwin&#39;s disturbing phone message to his daughter.

Aside from showing the ugly side of humanity, these stories have one thing in common: They were all covered in a misguided fashion.

With Imus, people were right to be up in arms. He defamed a group of talented young women at what was supposed to be their finest moment. Unfortunately, this story got hammered into the ground, filling the airwaves at every single second of the day. Why was this a problem? Because of media hypocrisy.

One of the main reasons the media gave for covering this so relentlessly was to right Imus&#39; wrong: defaming a group of women because of what he thought of their physical appearance.

Yet, by covering this so excessively, Imus&#39; comments have been replayed so many times it&#39;s gotten to the point where some would associate the Rutgers women less with basketball and more with Imus. It doesn&#39;t matter how untrue his remarks are, as the Rutgers women have almost solely been associated with Don Imus since their season ended because of the media firestorm.

Then there&#39;s Alec Baldwin&#39;s voice-mail tirade, where he refers to his 11-year-old daughter as a "thoughtless little pig" and vows to "straighten (her) out." Once again, media hypocrisy rears its ugly head. Ironically, so much has been said about the well-being of Baldwin&#39;s daughter while the real issue has gone ignored.

Namely, how well does it serve Baldwin&#39;s daughter to not only hear her parents&#39; dirty laundry aired in public, but also to hear the phone message repeated on television? Wouldn&#39;t most sane people say that divorce hurts children, and that the more public the divorce, the more negative the effect on the child?

Bad news judgment reached its zenith with NBC&#39;s decision to air videos made by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui. Naturally, the videos are all over YouTube.

Not only was the decision to air these videos in poor taste, but it didn&#39;t serve any purpose from a news standpoint. These videos added no new information and, more importantly, gave Cho exactly what he wanted: attention. Cho died, but NBC&#39;s airing of his videos got his message out to everyone.

In journalism, as much as some hate to admit it, the bottom line is still the bottom line. NBC aired these videos to get a jump on the competition, just like every news outlet jumped on them immediately afterward. Anyone who&#39;s shocked when the media does something sensational is hopelessly naive. If it bleeds, it leads and, more importantly, makes money.

When the media covers stories like this, it often claims moral superiority. It proclaims outrage and to know what is best for everyone. But if the way these situations have played out is any indication, it&#39;s clear that much of the time, the media doesn&#39;t have a clue.

While I&#39;m often disgusted by what gets covered and how, I can&#39;t begrudge the news media for making a living.

But if they&#39;re going to proclaim they know what is best for everyone, they should think about who their coverage is really hurting first.

--

Original Source:<a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/apr/23/imedia_doesnt_always_know_besti/>The Daily Bruin - April 23, 2007</a>

Mark Humphrey

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

Health service lacking funds, staff

By Elise Ma
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Since last week&#39;s shootings at Virginia Tech, officials at UCLA&#39;s Student Psychological Services have received many more calls than usual from people reporting concerns about other students.

While SPS has set up specific services to address the incident, it is also working to expand its general services in response to research suggesting college students require more mental health assistance than is currently offered.

And though SPS offers various services both in person and online, funding remains problematic, and some students said they are unsatisfied with both the quality of the staff and the availability of appointments.

"Short-staffed, we try to do what we can and are usually pretty successful in addressing the needs of most students who come in, but it would be easier for the staff here to manage if there were more of us," said Elizabeth Gong-Guy, SPS clinical director.

Christina, a first-year English student who asked to be identified by her middle name, said she was dissatisfied with her visit to SPS, specifically noting concerns about the conduct of the psychologist she met with.

She said at her appointment she was surprised to be met by a graduate student trainee, who immediately asked, "Do you mind if I record this? I want to study this later."

"It really turned me off because it seemed very unprofessional to me," Christina said. "I didn&#39;t want someone who is just 5 years older than me to use my therapy session for practice."

The environment made her feel uncomfortable, so she did not return to SPS. Instead, she decided to return to the therapist she went to at home, she said.

Gong-Guy said some students prefer one-on-one counseling with graduate student trainees, who are supervised by the professional clinicians on the SPS staff, and that students have the option of requesting a different counselor.

"A lot of psychotherapy is about the match between the clinician and client, and sometimes it takes one or two tries to get a good fit," she said.

Another concern some students had with SPS is the amount of time they had to wait to get an appointment.

Tiger Curran, a second-year communications studies student, said she tried to make an appointment during her freshmen year when she was feeling depressed and homesick, but could not get an appointment for three weeks.

"Those things should be taken care of within a reasonable amount of time," she said. "What if I was really suicidal or something? &#39;Come back in two weeks.&#39; Are you kidding me?"

Curran said by the time the appointment came around, she was asked to reschedule since SPS could not offer her the original time, though by then she was no longer in her "winter slump."

In an effort to make mental health assistance more available to students, SPS has in recent years introduced new services, including walk-in counseling, Gong-Guy said.

Since SPS began offering walk-in appointments, the number of students seeking counseling has jumped 30 percent, she added.

SPS also offers group counseling, couples counseling, stress clinics, Web resources, online brochures and urgent counseling services including walk-ins and crisis counselors available 24 hours a day via telephone.

And after the shootings at Virginia Tech, additional resources have been made available on the SPS Web site, including an online screening to check for symptoms of distress, suggestions for dealing with distress, and a discussion group to be held next week.

"An event like this, because it is so tragic and has national, local and personal implications, raises people&#39;s levels of vulnerability. It is important to reach out, and we&#39;re hoping people would come for that," Gong-Guy said.

Last quarter, the Undergraduate Students Association Council organized its first Mental Health Awareness Week.

One purpose of the week was to remove the stigma from psychological issues, said USAC General Representative Joline Price.

"The more students who feel comfortable getting help and knowing they are not alone, the better our campus is as a whole," Price said.

She added that she believes extending SPS&#39;s hours could help encourage students to use the services.

The University of California has begun diverting more resources toward its campuses&#39; counseling services.

In a 2006 student mental health report, the UC Board of Regents said counseling services on its campuses are understaffed and underfunded, even as campuses are seeing an increasing number of students with severe mental health issues.

In March 2007, the Board of Regents voted to set aside 43 percent of its revenue from a 7-percent increase of registration fees, accumulating $4.6 million to fund UC mental health services for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

UCLA SPS plans to use the additional funding to increase its staff.

"With more clinicians, we could do more of what we need to do. We could reduce the amount of time in between appointments, offer more groups, more services," Gong-Guy said.

--

Original Source: <a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/apr/24/health_service_lacking_funds_staff/>The Daily Bruin - April 24, 2007</a>

Elise Ma

The Daily Bruin

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

Forum looks at current issues

<b>Media&#39;s responses to Virginia Tech shootings spur discussion about ethnicity, mental health, violence</b>

By Eli Rosenberg
Tuesday, May 1, 2007

The issues of ethnicity, mental health, and violence in American society were some of the key topics addressed yesterday at a forum organized in response to the shootings at Virginia Tech.

The talk, titled "Media, Ethnicity and Public Response," was sponsored by both Student Psychological Services and the Dashew International Center, and was moderated by Elizabeth Gong-Guy and Bob Erickson, the directors of each organization, respectively.

"International students and scholars have great concern about issues of violence in American society, and this event gives them opportunity to participate in the discussion of this issue at UCLA," Erickson said.

He said Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16 before taking his own life, was originally reported erroneously to be an international student.

A few people expressed surprise that the issue of Cho&#39;s Korean ethnicity was such a focal point of debates that took place after the issue.

Gong-Guy described how she was brought to tears after listening to the apology of Cho&#39;s sister on the radio.

"(It was) the idea that she was apologizing not for herself or her brother, but for all Koreans and Asians on the whole," Gong-Guy said.

The discussion, which covered questions of violence, mental health and racial relations in American culture, highlighted some of the issues brought up in the media after the shootings.

Most of the seven participants seemed critical of the media&#39;s handling of the shootings, particularly in the early stages of the crisis.

"Media seeks to take the most sensationalized portrayal of issues in this era of 24-hour news," Erickson said.

The talk also touched on the changes and debates that UCLA has experienced in the aftermath of the attack.

"One of my first reactions is that it could have happened here," Erickson said.

The issue of mental health particularly was presented as a problem that affects college campuses nationwide.

"When something of this nature happens, it creates a ripple effect across the whole nation," Gong-Guy said.

Gong-Guy also spoke about the importance of simple mental health techniques for the prevention of such events.

"A lot of our efforts are focused on prevention - training students to use stress training techniques so resilience is higher, getting people to sleep better," Gong-Guy said.

Erickson spoke about how the university has tried to come up with a mass communication system to alert students, workers and faculty in the event of such a disaster.

Erickson also said universities have a responsibility to shift focus from students&#39; individual accomplishments to social and community involvement.

"Maybe we need to look more at community involvement (in admissions)," he said, adding that UCLA&#39;s new holistic admissions process was a step in that direction.

The talk, attended by a handful of people, lasted for about an hour. No undergraduate students were in attendance. While the numbers fell short of the organizer&#39;s expectations, a few people saw this lack of attendees as a positive sign.

"I&#39;m really happy that there&#39;s not that many people here" because high attendance would have been a sign of grief and anxiety in the student body, said local resident Hsuan-Shiang Wu.

--

Original Source: <a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/may/01/forum_current_issues/>The Daily Bruin - May 1, 2007</a>

Eli Rosenberg

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

Dynes addresses privacy laws

By Wafiqah Basrai
Thursday, May 3, 2007

In response to the recent shootings at Virginia Tech, UC President Robert Dynes addressed the California State Senate Education Committee on Wednesday about giving campuses more flexibility in sharing information on students who officials believe may be threats.

Dynes spoke about reforming certain federal privacy laws to allow university officials to share a student&#39;s private information with other school officials and with the student&#39;s parents under certain circumstances.

But some students and others are concerned about the implications of opening privacy laws and worry that it can be difficult to determine whether a student is a threat.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prevents health care facilities from reporting student information to an educational institution, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act limits the ability of university officials to share private information with a student&#39;s family or other organizations.

"We would support federal legislative remedies that would more clearly define circumstances for releasing information to parents or that would &#39;hold harmless&#39; universities that, acting in the best interest of the student, release information to parents or guardians," Dynes said.

If a university does share information about a student&#39;s behavioral or psychological problems with other organizations, it can currently face potential lawsuits. The U.S. Senate discussed possible reforms to these laws on Monday.

Several of the experts at the Senate meeting suggested changing one or both laws to allow for "liability prevention," which would protect colleges and universities.

Such protection, Dynes argued, would allow information about a potentially threatening student to be more easily shared within a college&#39;s administration or with local mental health or law-enforcement agencies.

But some students said they were concerned about loosening the federal privacy laws.

"There would be a lot of room for corruption within that suggestion - people could use the information the wrong way," said Avani Desai, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student.

"I think it would make it more difficult for students who are not a threat to society," Desai added.

Russ Federman, director of Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Virginia, said in testimony he gave to the Senate on Monday that he recognized the need for patient confidentiality, but also stressed that university officials need to communicate to each other when a student could be a threat.

He added that officials cannot share information with other university staff unless the student or others are in "imminent danger."

It can be hard for officials to distinguish what is considered "imminent danger," because they can potentially get sued if they share the wrong information, he said.

Dynes also spoke about the zero-tolerance weapon policy at all University of California campuses and said campus police have been trained to act in response to an emergency.

He also discussed campus-wide emergency-notification systems, which include e-mail messages and hotline numbers.

In his testimony, he said he is appointing a Campus Security Task Force composed of university security, student affairs, and legal and emergency-preparedness experts to extensively look into how the campuses can improve security measures. The group will report back to him in 60 days.

Dynes said budget constraints have restrained UC campuses from providing quick and frequent mental health services, but said the UC Board of Regents voted last month to increase funding for student mental health services by $4.6 million.

Tiffany Rodriguez, a third-year psychology student, said she believes this increase in funding will be good for the UC because many people do not know much about mental health services the campuses offer.

"It will give people more access to it," she said.

--

Original Source: <a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/may/03/dynes_addresses_privacy_laws/>The Daily Bruin - May 3, 2007</a>

Wafiqah Basrai

The Daily Bruin

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng

Mantras can&#39;t make miracles

<b>Although meditation can help ease stress, it won&#39;t cure what really ails students, society</b>

By Lara Loewenstein
Thursday, May 3, 2007

Film director David Lynch has the answer to the itching question of how to stop school shootings forever - he&#39;s going to teach 1 million students transcendental meditation. I&#39;m almost waiting for Tom Cruise to announce his plan to convert a second million to Scientology.

Transcendental meditation is a practice in which participants sit comfortably with their eyes closed and recite a mantra for 20 minutes, twice a day. Unlike other forms of meditation, TM is not meant to involve any form of concentration or effort other than finding the time to practice it. Courses to learn TM cost about $2,500.

It almost sounds like nap time. Expensive nap time. But the David Lynch Foundation wants to teach us. For free.

Or rather, they want to fund UCLA to teach us - he&#39;s providing the funds for schools that want to include TM in their curriculum in order to end school violence. All the schools have to do is contact him. Unfortunately, I don&#39;t think UCLA is going to take up the offer.

Unfortunate because TM does have some proven benefits - namely, reducing blood pressure and stress.

But TM is not proven to stop violence. And honestly, I don&#39;t know what problems Lynch thinks people have that can all be eased with TM. Maybe all his frustrations with film directing can be fixed. But TM isn&#39;t going to put an end to concrete problems college students face such as paying school loans.

And it certainly isn&#39;t going to solve mental instability, seemingly the cause of the recent Virginia Tech shooting.

But even with all the things TM won&#39;t do, during the Web cast on Tuesday, Lynch, so-called quantum physicist John Hagelin and singer-song writer Donovan gave me an idea of what TM would do.

After telling their personal stories about discovering TM, Hagelin described specifically how TM works. According to him, meditation allows the mind to settle inward, causing the brain to be more coherent before finally coming to a sense of unity where you realize we are all part of the same entity. He even provided useful charts - to aid those who aren&#39;t scientifically minded - that detailed how the state of unity in TM is the same as the "unified field of natural laws of nature."

My, that&#39;s an eloquent phrase.

But besides not knowing exactly what a quantum physicist is, I also don&#39;t know what this unified field has anything to do with any sense of unity I might achieve through meditation.

But I&#39;ll give Hagelin points for creativity. After all, he has a Ph.D. from Harvard.

According to Hagelin, Lynch and Donovan, it&#39;s this sense of unity that people achieve via TM that will bring about world peace and consequently end school violence.

They even stressed how by using their technique we won&#39;t need to debate gun control anymore. Because once everyone knows TM, nobody will want to use a gun even if they have access to one. They&#39;re going to be too busy enjoying their higher consciousness.

I love it; it&#39;s so simple and free of politics. And totally fantastical.

Not only is TM not going to cure all ills that cause violence, I don&#39;t understand where Lynch, Hagelin and Donovan expect people who are, say, in the process of applying to Harvard to find time to meditate for 40 minutes a day.

Still, methods to reduce stress and blood pressure and increase happiness should be studied.

But considering how much trouble I have sitting still, I&#39;d like to see some non-pseudo, and unbiasedly authored, studies comparing happiness and stress release related to smoking pot on a daily basis, swing dancing or getting laid.

But even with my attention issues, I still want to learn TM. I&#39;m just not paying $2,500.

I quickly sent an e-mail to the David Lynch Foundation on Tuesday requesting to be taught.

He hasn&#39;t responded yet. I doubt people requesting to learn TM are the ones at risk for becoming gunmen.

So I started by teaching myself.

But the "how to" for TM is pretty secretive. I suppose they really want that $2,500. I had to settle for plain meditation with a non-unique mantra - "hamsa."

So I sat down in a comfortable position and tried it, saying "ham" when I breathed in and "sa" when I breathed out.

Hammmm ... saa.

I fell asleep after five minutes.

And now I don&#39;t have time to do my problem set. Thanks, David.

I&#39;m sure meditation works for some people, but I&#39;m going to go back to my nap.

--

Original Source:<a href=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/may/03/mantras_miracles/>The Daily Bruin - May 3, 2007</a>

Lara Loewenstein

2007-07-15

Sara Hood

Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>

eng