Letters

Published: Monday, April 1, 1996

Monday, April 1, 1996Honor Ashe

Editor:

As a die-hard UCLA tennis fan, and a life-long activist, I humbly submit that the L.A. Tennis Center be renamed the Arthur Ashe L.A. Tennis Center.

I believe that a democratic vote of UCLA faculty, staff and students would support this name change. UCLA's other illustrious tennis alumnus, Jimmy Conners, would approve wholeheartedly.

D.J. Schulte

Vietnam vet activist

Job-hunt caution

Editor:

Recently, I had a very strange experience looking for a job. I answered a message I got on my e-mail about a marketing company that had part- and full-time positions available. I called the number and got a hold of a sales representative for Equinox products at the Brentwood Marketing Group.

I went in for what I thought was going to be an interview, but what I later learned was one long-winded sales pitch. They weren't offering me a job; they were trying to sell me a job.

This is what happened: I filled out an application because, at that point, I still wasn't sure about things. When I realized the application was strange (no section for work experience, it was called an "Application and AGREEMENT"), I wanted it back.

To cut a long story short, I asked the woman telling me about the company to return my application, so I could drop it off if I became interested. She didn't want to give it back to me, offering to throw it away for me; I had to pull it out of her hands. After I got up to leave, she followed me and made several demands to get the application back, even physically standing in front of the open elevator to prevent me from getting in. But there was no way I was going to give her something that I had already signed. Even after I tore it in half, she wanted the pieces.

The lesson I learned: "Don't sign ANYTHING without reading it first!" By signing the application, I also would have subscribed to Equinox's magazine for a fee of $49.95. There were also several binding agreements written on the back. If I had let that woman "throw away" my application for me, I'm sure she would have thrown it straight to the processing center and started billing me the moment I left.

I know there are a lot of students out there looking for jobs, but you have to be careful. There are many people like these trying to swindle you out of your money. I'm sure it's all legal; it's just written in fine print.

A few things to remember when looking for jobs: 1) Do not sign anything without fully reading it. 2) Take it home and bring it back if you have to, but don't sign without knowing what you're signing for. 3) If you sense a shady situation, leave. Make an excuse, get up and leave. My situation got very shady at one point, so I excused myself and left.

If anyone else out there got the same e-mail I did, IGNORE IT! It's not worth your time. All that the sales representative, Equinox and the Brentwood Marketing Group want are a few naive people they can take advantage of. And they almost did it to me.

Anyway, good luck with the job-hunt and be careful.

Raphael A. Gutierrez

Fourth-year

Psychology

Save the earth

Editor:

If somebody wanted to begin to understand the hypocrisy at the core of our environmental crisis as it exists in Los Angeles in 1996, one need look no further than the front page of the Daily Bruin on March 11.

UCLA announced the founding of the Institute of the Environment, a bold new program "to find solutions to current environmental problems" ("Environmental courses in the work," March 11). The institute will want to begin its vital work by questioning UCLA's partnership with the Playa Vista/Dreamworks development planned for Playa del Rey, a very serious and current environmental problem ("UCLA joins Dream Team at Playa Vista location," March 11). How convenient.

Professor Richard Turco, who will head the institute, claims that "UCLA has a unique combination of highly talented people to develop solutions to these problems." We might not need to develop solutions if we didn't create problems in the first place. UCLA is in the position of supporting the development of what will become the fourth largest polluter in Los Angeles built on "one of the largest undeveloped areas in a major urban center." This large undeveloped area not only provides much needed, uncongested breathing room for residents and commuters, but also provides home for 129 bird species, 25 fish species, 19 mammals and much other wildlife. The Playa Vista/Dreamworks development will mean the death or displacement of these species, intensified abuse of the bay, increased traffic, noise and smog. The bottom line is that nobody is forcing Dreamworks and the developers to strangle and suffocate one of California's last coastal wetlands with concrete. But because they do not care about the environment, they will.

Does UCLA care about the environment? Yes, I believe it does. But "playing a major role in (Playa Vista's) health care and education" is not a way to demonstrate that care. When will we learn that we can't keep destroying the earth as we presume to save it? I applaud UCLA's Institute of the Environment. But until such lofty aspirations are actually manifest in our actions, decision-making and choice of projects, front page headlines like these cry out for an Institute for Cynicism Management.

David Beckman

Citizens United To Save

All Of Ballona

Housing protest

Editor:

The article, "UCLA officials predict houses will sell" in the March 11 Daily Bruin promoted the university's duty to provide housing for student families as a business venture rather than a service for students. In addition, Daily Bruin reporter Lia Ramsey celebrates the use of nonunion workers, supposedly to keep student prices down.

Since moving into UCLA's family housing, I have become convinced that the purpose of family housing is FOR PROFIT and NOT to provide affordable and conducive student housing. The wait lists seem to ignore undergraduate married couples in favor of foreign students who pay nonresident tuition, which is much higher than the tuition of resident Californians. The housing has a wait list that is supposedly full, yet after months of waiting, stern pressure from myself and others in similar positions magically created vacancies.

Family housing is absolutely dominated by visiting foreign students, while resident families, who subsidize the UC system through taxes, live in Inglewood, the Valley, East Los Angeles, Hawthorne and Los Angeles.

Since first moving in, our rent has risen from $596 to $614 and is expected to rise 3 percent, plus $8 for cable meaning $640 a month. The increase is partially attributed to the cost of building new apartments, which Ramsey claims was made cheaper by traditional American union busting. These new apartments start at a $179 increase on our original rent, a $161 increase of what we now pay, and a $135 increase on what we will pay after the next increase. The cheapest new one-bedroom apartment will be $79 more than what we originally paid for a two-bedroom.

As statewide tuition has increased 134 percent since 1990, the rising cost of living (including rent) is often neglected. My wife and I work 20-25 hours a week, attend UCLA full time, receive financial aid and still must take out students loans. Our parents are not in a position to help us, and we barely squeak by. It is this kind of story that leadd to the 200,000 students who dropped out of the California university system since 1992, mostly people of color. All the while, grumpy, old men talk of how they worked their way through college. Sure, when tuition was $400 and minimum wage was $2.35.

With the abolishment of affirmative action, raising tuition, rent and general cost of living, the UC system is systematically reducing the access and opportunity of people of color and the poor to higher education at all levels!

Javier Gonzalez

AKA "Withholding Rent"Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu