UCLA hosts AAPI Policy Summit
Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) lawmakers, researchers and community leaders convened at UC Los Angeles for the AAPI Policy Summit on Feb. 10, ABC 7 News reported.
The event was hosted by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center (AASC) and Luskin School of Public Affairs in partnership with the California API Legislative Caucus. State Attorney General Rob Bonta delivered the keynote speech, according to the event website.
AASC Director Karen Umemoto said to ABC 7 News that the event’s focus was “to discuss important policy issues of the day.” Over 18 AASC faculty present policy briefs based on their research.
Conference leaders also discussed ways to combat anti-Asian hate in the face of the recent uptick in anti-Asian hate crimes following COVID-19. During his keynote address, Bonta expressed a widespread concern for Asian elders and said he often chooses to drive his mother places instead of having her travel alone.
“That type of conversation has happened a million times in the AAPI community between sons and daughters and their mothers and fathers or their grandmothers and grandfathers, their … loved ones, their aunties, their uncles,” Bonta said at the event, according to ABC 7 News.
State Assemblymember Mike Fong also attended the event, representing the San Gabriel region including Monterey Park, where 11 community members were killed in a mass shooting during a Lunar New Year celebration. Fong expressed gratitude for community support and said preventative legislation should be developed to address gun violence.
“I really appreciate the outpouring of support and uplift in the city of Monterey Park and the San Gabriel Valley and California,” Fong said at the event. “Going forward, we know there’s a lot of work to be done to keep our communities safe. And part of our legislative package going forward is looking at how we can prevent and address these issues on gun violence.”
UC Davis primate research center faces backlash for experimentation practices
Youth organization Students Opposing Speciesism (SOS) protested on UC Davis’s campus against the use of animals in research from the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), The California Aggie reported.
SOS is backed by PETA, according to their website. Experimentation from the CNPRC has resulted in animal deaths, PETA alleged in a press release.
The Jan. 26 protest featured demonstrators wearing monkey masks locked in cages in the Quad and thrashing around before being doused in fake blood, according to The California Aggie.
“The CNPRC run by UC Davis imprisons over 5,000 monkeys for use in cruel and deadly experiments that do not benefit students,” fourth-year psychology major and organizer of the event Kara Long said to The California Aggie.
“We are trying to raise awareness of their abuse and come up with alternative methods of scientific research that do not involve the use of nonhuman animals,” she continued.
The center houses over 4,000 primates for research, according to the CNPRC website, and ensures “involvement in research is as comfortable as possible and seek[s] alternatives to use whenever possible.”
UC Irvine receives largest ever alumni donation
UC Irvine is receiving a $35.5 million gift from alumni Jo and Paul Butterworth to support the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, the university announced on Monday. The donation is the largest the university has ever received from alumni thus far.
The donation comes from the married duo and will fund “awards, scholarships and fellowships for students and finance new research initiatives and faculty chairs,” according to the UCI newsroom.
Paul was one of the first graduates of UCI’s computer science graduate program and said monetary support helped his education.
“I was considering not going to the university unless I received financial aid, because I didn’t have any money. But when UCI came through with a package to help out, that made all the difference in the world,” he said. “This is what inspired us to pledge support for students – so they can follow their dreams despite their financial situations.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the Feb. 16, 2023, print edition of the Daily Nexus.
