The Highlander
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE
For the week of Wednesday, July 30, 2025
VOL. 74, ISSUE 00
‘Pay Us What You Owe Us’: WNBA stars protest league’s CBA proposal
est. 1954
PUT FAMILIES FIRST ACTION LED BY SEIU CONGREGATES OUTSIDE OF RIVERSIDE CITY HALL.
CHANCELLOR HU BRINGS IMPRESSIVE ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE, BUT HE MUST ALSO PRIORITIZE WHAT MAKES UCR UNIQUE.
FRUSTRATED BY LEAGUE NEGOTIATORS, WNBA PLAYERS ORGANIZE T-SHIRT PROTEST, CALLING THE LEAGUE’S COUNTEROFFER DISRESPECTFUL.
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
ELENA VERSAGE Staff Photographer
On Saturday, July 19, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) held its annual All-Star Game. It wasn’t just the on-court talent that made headlines. What captured attention were the players’ warmup shirts, boldly displaying the message “Pay Us What You Owe Us” alongside the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) logo. Signs saying “Pay The Players” were held up by many in the arena including All-Star Brittany Sykes from the Washington Mystics. The signs and shirts came as a result of Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations that happened days prior to the game. The CBA is the official labor contract between the WNBA and the WNBPA (the players’ union). It outlines key terms of employment such as player salaries, benefits, paid time off, retirement plans, free agency rules and, notably, revenue sharing between the league and its players. On Thursday July 17, WNBA players attended a negotiation session with the players union and the league executives. ► SEE WNBA ON PAGE 26
COURTESY OF IJR
Leading UCR as chancellor means more than just research
MATA ELANGOVAN / THE HIGHLANDER
MATA ELANGOVAN Editor-in-Chief
On July 26, 2025, people all across the nation came together to support working families in Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) National Day of Action to demand care and not cuts from the government. In the city of Riverside, this culminated in SEIU Locals 721, 1000, 2015, 121RN and United Health Workers (UHW) coming together and rallying at Riverside City Hall to advocate for the needs of the community. The theme of the action: Put families first. According to Juanita Salas, the political coordinator for the union board, the purpose of the action is to connect the community in Riverside. She emphasizes, “We’re here to let our community know that we’re here to put families first.” Salas explains that the people gathered at the action are a coalition of working families, immigrants, parents, nurses, teachers, union members and community leaders, and that they are all rising up together to say, “Enough with the billionaire handouts. Enough with the cruelty. Enough with the corruption and enough with the division.” Barbara Bondurant, a member of SEIU
2015 working in in-home support services was one of many who came out to support the action. Bondurant, a 78-year-old caregiver, currently cares for her 46-yearold son with down syndrome. She drove out to the Inland Empire from La Verne to advocate for her families’ needs. She expressed, “Action is what has brought us success in the past. Action is what has brought us living wages. It has brought better conditions for the nursing home section of our union.” With the passing of President Donald J. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” various concerns have sprouted up in Bondurant’s life. Her primary concern being the cuts to MediCare and MediCal. She shares, “Trump is trying to cut that and give money to corporations, and those corporations exist because of working people. [These corporations] need to respect working people.” Over the course of an hour, various speakers from in-community, labor unions and community organizations shared words of support and encouragement to the crowd that gathered. To make it more accessible to the public, the action was supported by American Sign Language (ASL) and Spanish translators who...
On July 15, 2025, S. Jack Hu, former senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia (UGA), became the tenth chancellor of the University of California, Riverside (UCR). As UGA’s chief academic officer, Chancellor Hu built an impressive record in advancing research, faculty outreach and teaching programs. In 2019, he launched the Provost Task Force on Academic Excellence to identify areas where the university could “build on its strengths and maximize its impact on society.” This initiative helped expand research and faculty hiring efforts, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Before joining UGA, Hu served as vice president for research at the University of Michigan, where he managed a research operation with annual expenditures exceeding $1.5 billion. He led research activities across the university’s multiple campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint. Before immigrating to the United States, Hu earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tianjin... ► SEE CHANCELLOR ON PAGE 8
COURTESY OF UCR RECREATION
► SEE FAMILIES ON PAGE 4
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