Poppy Press

Julio Frenk inaugurated his tenure as the new chancellor of UCLA by issuing a misleading report: endangering student safety and health.

On Wednesday morning, his Director of Emergency Management, Lisa Martin, issued an email stating that campus operations would remain in person because the “air quality levels in Westwood remain(ed) within normal levels.”

As wildfires started raging in Los Angeles, the university attached a graphic to Martin’s email to corroborate her report and justify their refusal to move classes online and provide proper information about the progress of the wildfires near surrounding neighborhoods.

The “Air Quality Index” used by the university measured “particulate (PM2.5) air matter.”

However, as the Clean Air Act outlines, the official Air Quality Index measures five primary air pollutants: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (including PM2.5 and PM10), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.

Therefore, the “real-time US EPA Air Quality Index” was a selective measurement: its use withheld important information.

At the time of the email, the official Weather App’s Air Quality Index was at 284 – “very unhealthy” – and warned about the relentless wind and “severe weather” that would further exacerbate these conditions.

The university administration either recklessly or intentionally provided deceitful data to their community and used it to keep classes in person on Wednesday.

As a result, many professors and employers obligated students and workers to be on campus. UCLA community members with respiratory and pre-existing health conditions that put them at exacerbated risk complained about this but to no avail.**

Students have reported seeing wildfire smoke and feeling the effects of the air pollution from their apartments and dorms. While panic spread across the community, UCLA cancelled classes for Thursday and Friday later on Wednesday, but the university failed to provide adequate suggestions and timely updates as the fires and the air condition continued to progress.

“The fires in the Los Angeles region do not pose an immediate danger to the campus,” Martin’s statement reads, yet the fires growing closer to UCLA were not the only issue this week.

These fires will hopefully not reach us, but the air pollution and wind levels had already been declared national emergencies, and despite what the university claimed, toxic air was already endangering students.

Students were misled about the danger they were facing regarding air quality and had no confidence they would be informed of the hazards that may be coming from the wildfires. The administration responsible for their ‘safety’ did little to inform, communicate with or support their students, sending resources only on Thursday afternoon.

This university has the health of tens of thousands of people in its hands, and Frenk’s administration has demonstrated this week that yet again UCLA’s interests have priorities that surpass their community’s health and wellbeing.

Anxiety and panic are reasonable emotions to feel. Still, your help is needed.

The lack of care extends beyond UCLA. Many have pointed out that Mayor Bass recently diverted $17.5 million in LAFD funds to the LAPD. Fire departments have to ask for donations of adequate materials.*

Many communities beyond Westwood are reeling, and there is no plan coming from the state or city officials to help those that are most at risk. To community members and students, we want to urge you to engage in mutual aid, to volunteer if possible, and to support as much as you can.

**Note: Earlier this year, the university issued a vague mask ban in order to prohibit trying ‘to conceal one’s identity,’ the selective application of which falling on students wearing anything affiliated with Palestine. As a result, many students seeking to protect themselves on Tuesday and Wednesday did so with the potential threat of university prejudice.