Brandelyn: Lyrical Contradiction

UM!!!! Okay, so I’ve been trying very hard not to talk smack about the things I have been learning in working with various higher ups here on campus, but I have to speak my piece. For those of you who knows me, my unofficial middle name is Brandelyn “Go Bears” Castine. I love my school. I am an extremely proud Golden Bear and an even bigger hater of all other schools, but most specifically, USC and UCLA. However, the focus of this blog, is UCLA. Now, just a bit of background, UCLA was the second UC to be created, after CAL was created. That is why they have similar colors (or the same colors if you look at their band) they have the same fight song, a miniature version of our mascot and everything else you would need to make yourselves feel like a real school. However, last year, UCLA came under a lot of heat because of their admissions process. They admitted a little of a hundred black students, over 60 percent of which were athletes. Where Berkeley was the only UC to have an increase in Black applications and admits. Go Bears. So clearly, UCLA figured that they needed to step their game up. So who did they run to? That’s right. Papa Bear. We spent the summer training them on our admissions process and low and behold suddenly they had more black admits. Miraculous. THEN! Because they are UCLA and they know that they will never be as amazing as Cal, they decided to offer each and every black student a scholarship to try and entice them to come to UCLA. Although, when I take off my blue and gold jacket, that is an amazing opportunity for black students, but is a thousand dollars really worth getting a second rate education? Apparently not because Berkeley had more black student register than UCLA. Again I say, Go Bears.

            Just a few moments ago, my co-worker came into my office and showed me an application for a summer program UCLA is now trying to start, that is supposed to be similar to the one we have been running for the past few years. WHY did the application have our organizations Letter head, contact information and why was the application the exact same application we use for our summer outreach program?  Basically all they did was change the title of the program and send it out. At least take our name off it!!! How are you going to try and steal our program and not even be slick about it? Like I said, second rate education. UCLA is a mess. That’s right I said it! A mess. I mean really how raggedy can you get?!!

            I apologize for the rant and the rave but I needed to get that off my chest. Raggedy, raggedy, raggedy!