The Highlander
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE
For the week of Tuesday, February 28, 2023
VOL. 71, ISSUE 17
NEWS Concerns arise as to whether ASUCR will provide funding for student orgs
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RADAR Grammy Controversy: Not Black or White CECILE DIROLL Contributing Writer
ABHIJIT REGE News Editor
The Associated Students of UCR’s seventh meeting was called to order by Executive Vice President Myra Usmani on Wednesday, Jan. 25th, 2023 in the ASUCR Senate Chamber at 7:05 P.M. All senators were present, excluding CNAS senator Brenden Cano and BCOE senator Chloe Au as well as senators Andrew Bui and Alex Lu who arrived late. In addition to the senators, members of the Executive Cabinet were present as well. During the Public Forum, Todd Halvorsen first took the stand to discuss the upcoming New York Times Collaboration for the school. Halvorsen explained through a presentation on behalf of the New York Times that Vice President of Campus Internal Affairs, Jeanine Nassar is at the forefront of this collaboration and expenses will be coming out of the Office of the VPCIA. Vice President of External Affairs, Amina Hearns gave a statement of frustration on behalf of the VPEA Office, and the lack of support and communication within ASUCR and Senate. Executive President
Mufida Assaf scolded the senate by reminding them that tabling is a part of their by-laws and that tabling efforts by the Senators has been lacking. EVP Usmani must get in contact with the Marketing and Promotions Director Phanxico Hoang to determine who is keeping with their tabling duties. Most notably at the meeting, concerns were raised regarding ASUCR’s department of finance and funding. Cecilia López Gonzales and Armando Ruiz-Rosas Jr. spoke for the UCR Model United Nations club and expressed how their organization, among others, is experiencing issues with obtaining funding from ASUCR finance. According to Gonzales, funding has become inaccessible to students and expressed that she found officials to have “clear gaps of knowledge on financial funding.” She elaborated that when reaching out to the finance president, she did not receive a response until she was able to sit down with President Assaf. Ruiz-Rosas Jr. voiced that there was a “lack of accountability which has ► SEE ASUCR PAGE 3
Earlier this month, artists gathered to celebrate and recognize music across all genres at the 65th Grammy Awards. With performances from Bad Bunny and Lizzo to a star-studded audience that included Adele, Taylor Swift, H.E.R. and many others. Spirits were high, and everyone was excited — until the winner of the last category was announced. Beyoncé’s album “Renaissance,” celebrating Black dance music and queer culture, was expected to win Album of the Year by critics and fans. The album had accumulated 179.06 million streams within the first week of its release, the most in Beyoncé’s career. But when the host, Trevor Noah handed the envelope to the Harry Styles fan on stage, saying “You can read it,” it was clear Beyonce had lost the category again. A stunned Harry Styles’ graciously accepted the award and emotionally remarked, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often,”— poking the Beyhive even more. Despite winning a record-breaking 32 Grammys, more than any other artist, Beyoncé has yet to win Album of the Year. Her work has been nominated by the Recording Academy in this category for the last four years, each time losing
out to white artists. Jay-Z, Beyoncé’s husband and famous rapper in his own right, commented that her loss was a “missed opportunity” and blamed it as being a “marketing thing” after the show. Even Lizzo, who won Record of the Year for her song “About Damn Time,” the first Black woman to receive the award since Whitney Houston won it back in 1994, felt compelled to acknowledge Beyoncé in her acceptance speech as Adelé did back in 2016 when she beat out Beyoncé in this category. The Grammy’s latest snub of Beyoncé’s work not only enraged her many fans but served to underscore an open secret — the Recording Academy’s unceasing underrepresentation of Black artists in its four major categories: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year. Because winning a Grammy is considered the “music industry’s highest honor,” the repeated awarding of this coveted acknowledgment to white over Black artists has been roundly criticized by such notable musicians as The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and Frank Ocean. In 2021, for instance, The Weeknd announced a boycott against the Grammys after his album, “After ► SEE GRAMMYS PAGE 10
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