UCLA Student Government Election Concludes Following Controversy
The UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council election concluded on May 6 with the lowest voter turnout in over a decade, after two presidential candidates were sanctioned following accusations of stalking and harassment.
Carl King Jr. was elected Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) President following the disqualification of his opponent, Angelina Quint. Quint was disqualified on May 5 after repeated violations of sanctions placed against her, according to the Daily Bruin.
Both candidates were embroiled in controversy after an anonymous student filed a complaint with the elections board on Quint’s behalf alleging King harassed her online and sent people to apprehend her in person. An anonymous student filed a complaint on King’s behalf as well, claiming Quint defamed him. The Undergraduate Students Association (USA) Elections Board conducted an investigation into the complaints and suspended both candidates from social media campaigning.
Fewer than 5,000 people voted out of 30,000 eligible voters and the turnout was 15.19% — the lowest the campus has seen in over a decade, according to the Daily Bruin.
UC Berkeley Falcon Welcomes New Chicks
UC Berkeley’s resident peregrine falcon Annie hatched two chicks this weekend after a tumultuous breeding season.
Annie lives at the top of Campanile Tower and laid three eggs, with two hatching on May 5 and 6, according to The Daily Californian. The third egg is past the normal timeline to hatch — which is not uncommon for Annie, as she has had unhatched eggs during previous breeding seasons.
The new chicks follow the death of Annie’s long-term mate Grinnell, who died after being hit by a vehicle in the midst of April breeding season. However, Annie quickly found a new paramour in Alden, who arrived at the Campanile and mated with Annie soon after Grinnell’s passing.
According to Cal Falcons, a team of UC Berkeley scientists that manage the falcons’ habitat and care, two of the eggs are likely fathered by Grinnell, with the other one possibly being fathered by Alden.
Annie first nested at Campanile Tower with Grinnell in 2016 and has been a fixture of UC Berkeley ever since. Cal Falcons hosted a Hatch Day with telescope views of the nest and falcon drawings on May 6, in honor of the new chicks.
The new chicks will be banded — a process allowing viewers to identify and distinguish the birds — on May 27. The chicks can be viewed through live webcams on the Cal Falcons website.
Protests in Support of Abortion Rights Occur Across UC Campuses
After a leaked Supreme Court draft showed justices primed to vote in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade — the decision that protects legal abortion rights in the U.S. — protests cropped up across UC campuses and their adjacent communities.
At UC Santa Barbara, a downtown protest garnered hundreds of supporters of abortion rights, and similar demonstrations occured at UC San Diego, UC Los Angeles and UC Berkeley.
“We’re just regressing,” Berkeley protester Kesi Kasai-Johnson said, according to The Daily Californian. “Motherhood is a title for life. We should be given the choice of if and when we want to become mothers.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the May 12, 2022, print edition of the Daily Nexus.
