VOLUME 49, ISSUE 36
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016
WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG
AROUND CAMPUS
TO RAVE OR NOT TO RAVE
CALIFORNIA
Assemblywoman
Urges Privacy in Wake of Court Ruling AB 2097 would restrict public school districts from collecting Social Security information from students. BY REBECCA CHONG
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA
WITH SO MANY EDM CONCERTS AND FESTIVALS TAKING PLACE IN SPRING AND SUMMER, IT MIGHT BE TEMPTING TO FINALLY TRY ONE OUT. DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE RAVE CULTURE IS ABOUT? THE GUARDIAN HAS GOT YOU COVERED. WEEKEND, PAGE 6
BATHROOMS FOR ALL
whether spoon, fork or spork opinion, Page 4
BASEBALL DOMINATES improve record To 10-2 Sports, Page 12
FORECAST
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FRIDAY
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Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer spoke at UCSD after screening his documentary “The Look of Silence” on Monday. Photo by Kenji Bennett /UCSD Guardian
UC SYSTEM
Labor Group Accuses University of Wage Theft By JOSH LEFLER
T
he American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 filed its second complaint against the University of California to the state’s Public Employment Relations Board on Feb. 12. In the charge, AFSCME Local 3299, the UC system’s largest labor union, cited the “abject” wage conditions experienced by the UC system’s subcontracted workers. The union alleged that the UC system “violated its collective bargaining agreement … by entering at least five distinct contracts at multiple campuses with private firms that pay their workers rock bottom wages for fulltime permanent staffing needs,” according to a Feb. 19 press release. The UC system relies upon subcontracted workers to maintain normal operations across all campuses. These workers, hired and paid through private companies, work in custodial services, food services, security, construction, landscaping and other areas. According to a report generated by AFSCME Local
See WORKERS, page 3
SUNDAY
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VERBATIM THE POPULARITY OF VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) HAS BEEN RISING IN A WAY THAT WILL ALLOW IMPORTANT RESOURCES, SUCH AS HISTORICAL MONUMENTS, TO BECOME MORE ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC. COMPANIES HAVE INVESTED HEAVILY IN VR WITH FACEBOOK PURCHASING OCULUS RIFT...”
- Alexander Chen
TECH IT OUT OPINON, PAGE 4
INSIDE TESTOSTERONE .............. 2 IPHONES AND THE FBI .... 4 ZOOTOPIA REVIEW .......... 8 SUDOKU ....................... 10 GOLF BEGINS SEASON .. 12
3299, the University of California enlists at least 45 different private contractors across all UC campuses. The same report also states that subcontracted workers are paid as much as 53 percent less than UC workers and do not receive benefits. President of AFSCME Local 3299 Kathryn Lybarger argued that, though these workers are hired and paid by private companies, the university is partially responsible for the wage theft that occurs. “[The University of California] is helping some of our state’s most notorious employers profit by condemning hundreds — if not thousands — of full-time UC workers and their families to a life of poverty and exploitation,” Lybarger stated in the press release. UC Office of the President Media Specialist Kate Moser spoke in defense of the administration’s choice to deal with the private companies in question. “There was no violation of the collective bargaining agreement,” Moser told the UCSD Guardian. “[The university] complied with the contracts requirements. There
CAMPUS
UCSD Extension Celebrates 50th Anniversary The school is offering scholarships for students to enroll in its courses and programs. BY MARIO ESPINOZA
UCSD Extension will celebrate its 50th anniversary with $50,000 in scholarships, as well as a variety of special programs and guest speaker events. The campaign, titled “The Next Fifty Years,” will focus on the initiatives and programs that will expand its operations in the future. These programs are meant to uphold UCSD Extension’s mission to “serve the critical lifelong knowledge and skill development needs of individuals, organizations and the community.” One of the initiatives involves offering 10 scholarships worth $5,000 each to recipients with a high school degree or an equivalent who want to take UCSD Extension’s courses or enroll in certification programs. Applicants are required to write a 500-
word essay on how UCSD Extension will help them in their careers and in the pursuit of their passions by July 1. Another feature of the anniversary is the weekly “Voices of the Future” program. This initiative will provide leaders in the San Diego community with speaking opportunities to give their insights on technological and social advances coming in the next half century. These thought leaders will come from UCSD faculty, as well as members of industry and the civic sector. Currently scheduled speakers will include awardwinning environmentalist writer Barry Lopez and Director of UCSD’s Center for Algae Biotechnology Stephen Mayfield. Furthermore, Career Week, which will run from March 22–24, will be hosted by UCSD Extension in order to focus on emerging careers that
students could pursue. A public conversation with Bill Keller, former editor of The New York Times, will be held on May 16 in order to discuss the evolving criminal justice reporting industry and the rapidly growing usage of broadcast channels and online media. Dean of UCSD Extension Mary Walshok told the UCSD Guardian that UCSD Extension has had an impact on the San Diego community by helping public school teachers through technology and foreignlanguage usage. “UCSD was a very new campus when I came, nobody had personal computers or cellphones,” Walshok said. “Those types of devices have transformed the teaching-learning process. And so, we serve thousands of public school teachers annually with See ANNIVERSARY, page 3
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) proposed a bill to prevent the Social Security numbers of California public school students from being collected by school districts unless required by law on Feb. 17. Gonzalez’s proposal was a response to the recent ruling in Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association, et al. v. California Department of Education. The ruling orders school districts to give the personal information of all students who attended a California public school from Jan. 1, 2008 and onward to the CPA. Assembly Bill 2097 was proposed in conjunction with Assemblymembers Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) and Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles). Gonzalez’s Chief of Staff Evan Mclaughlin explained the two goals of the bill and how similar situations should be dealt with should they arise in the future. “The first is to get schools and school districts out of the business of collecting certain kinds of sensitive information like Social Security numbers, as the Department of Education acknowledges that there is no practical use by a school district for the collection of that information — zero,” Mclaughlin said to the UCSD Guardian. “Secondly, the Assemblywoman and her colleagues are exploring whether the bill can create a higher standard for the release of this information to outside organizations … To put a finer point on it, can this information be organized in a way that preserves transparency but that doesn’t put the privacy and security of 10 million children and their families at risk?” About 10 million students will potentially have their information given to the CPA under the parameters established by the court ruling. The data dump will go to the nonprofit Concerned Parents Association for research on how students with disabilities are treated in the public school system. While he acknowledged the need for transparency in the operations of California’s public school system, Mclaughlin expressed concern over the implications of the legal decision. “Social Security numbers, medical history and discipline records that are traceable to individual children and their families is very worrisome, no matter what kind of private organization is receiving them,” Mclaughlin said. “This is a terrible precedent to set in the eyes of parents, See PRIVACY, page 3