FOR THE WEEK OF TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2014
Highlander University
Volume 62
of
C a l i f o r n i a , R ive r s i d e
Issue 16
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ASUCR bans [YOU]CR as political party name SANDY VAN Senior Staff Writer
On Jan. 29, 2014, ASUCR Elections Director Chris Sanchez announced that he will ban the political party name [YOU] CR from being used in the upcoming 2013-2014 elections due to its phonetic similarities to UC Riverside’s own name. Since its nascent rise in 2012-13, [YOU] CR has dominated the past elections with its members wielding control of more than three-fourths of the senate in the past two elections. Sanchez reports that he is enforcing an existing elections code regulation to ensure that student voters do not confuse ASUCR political parties with current campus organizations, as listed under item two of the Elections Code, entitled “New Party Creation.” “The elections director has the ultimate authority in deciding the proper enforcement of the elections code, therefore in interpreting (that) no party name may include as a part of its name, the name of or reference to any organization,” he said. “So the fact that the party name [YOU]CR has been used the past two years sounds phonetically (and) exactly the same as our university’s name … leads me to believe that it is in conflict with the elections code.” Sanchez also justified the change as a way of “reinventing
GRAPHIC BY CAMERON YONG Hoping to deter any errant popularity associated with the [YOU]CR political party name, ASUCR has chosen to ban it in any upcoming election.
the entire elections process,” for the new makeup of candidates come election time. “We feel that, really, people shouldn’t be elected into office just because they’re related to a party name that’s had success in the past,” he said. “They should become elected into office because their vision is the one that students want to see enacted.” [YOU]CR received high mem-
bership rates during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 election years. In the former academic year, the senate implemented a three-prong student government: executive, legislative and judicial branch — as approved by the student body — to ensure a more democratic process. But even then, the 2012-2013 senate was often stricken by controversies surrounding late
candidacy applications, the disbandment of a political party and discussions of delaying the elections. In one scenario, senators voted to accept the late candidate applications of three former [YOU]CR candidates-turnedsenators, one of whom participated in the vote. In a preemptive effort to address any hiccups this year, Sanchez and his elections committee
UCR launches Italian courses for Spanish-speakers JOSEPH AVILA Contributing Writer
Starting summer of 2014, UC Riverside will be launching two courses of “Italian for Spanish Speakers,” a fastpaced system which will allow Spanishspeaking students to learn Italian in three quarters to fulfill their language requirement; a fourth quarter is open for optional enrollment. Undergraduate students must test out of Spanish four (SPN 004) and into Spanish five (SPN 005) through the language placement test to be considered eligible for the courses. “All students who want to enroll in the first of the two courses of Italian for Spanish Speakers (ITAL120A) need to take a placement test in Spanish,” said Dr. Nicoletta Tinozzi-Mehrmand, UCR lecturer and coordinator of the Italian language program. “In the summer, we will be offering ITAL020A (first summer session) and ITAL020B (second summer session). After ITAL20B, students will be able to enroll in the regular ITAL004 usually offered in the fall.” Instead of the regular four-quarter language track, eligible students can
complete the Italian language requirement through ITAL020A, ITAL020B and ITAL004. The first two courses will use a relatively new method that originated in Europe called intercomprehension — a form of communication where individuals use their own language to understand that of another. Intercomprehension will utilize the familiarity of the Spanish sentence structure that native speakers already have in order to accelerate the learning process. Dr. Mehrmand’s Spanish-speaking students understand her when she speaks Italian, but she says, “They don’t know why they understand.” That’s where intercomprehension comes into play. It will focus on identifying similarities and differences between the Latin-based languages of Italian and Spanish. “We start from scratch. We start from the basics and very simple sentences,” she explains.
Being a native speaker of Italian and learning Spanish in Rome and French at UCLA, Mehrmand understands the usefulness of the intercomprehension method when learning languages with the same linguistic foundation. “I went to a workshop (for intercomprehension) and they gave me a (passage to read). One in Catalan and one in Portuguese — I’m not trained in any of them — and after some suggestions I read and understood the whole thing,” she said. “That is intercomprehension: use what’s similar and with a few tools you can understand.” Dr. Mehrmand feels that teaching Italian through the standardized four-quarter system to students who have a background in Spanish stunts their learning process. “Why teach them obvious stuff?” she questioned. “Because I have students that understand
“Why teach them obvious stuff?” -Dr. Nicoletta Tinozzi-Mehrmand
► SEE ITALIAN, PAGE 6
revamped the election code last week to increase competition and create fewer barriers to entry for potential candidates, such as lowering the requirement for establishing a political party from seven people to three. As one of two CHASS senators who won under a non-[YOU] CR party, Senator Ranjit Nair ex► SEE [YOU]CR, PAGE 6
INSIDE: President Obama’s State of the Union speech shows Obama’s determination to help underserved Americans.
OPINIONS
PAGE 8
Do women police themselves sexually? Check out the discussion in the first entry of the latest “sexion,” Under the Kilt. PAGE 12
FEATURES
Islands brought high energy and an encore performance to the Barn. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
PAGE 16
Simone DeCoud plays the role of hometown hero on the women’s basketball team. PAGE 20
SPORTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
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STAFF
PAGE 7 PLEASE RECYCLE AFTER READING