The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 91, Issue 38 - April 8, 2013

oo U-l и < go о LOYO LAN April 8, 2013 Volume 91, Issue 38 www.laloyolan.com YOUR HOME. YOUR VOICE. YOUR NEWS. LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY LMU hosts TEDx on education and reform TEDx LoyolaMarymountU brings together education leaders from around Los Angeles. By Allison Croley News Editor Innovative, cutting-edge education reform was the overall theme of TEDx LoyolaMarymountU (TEDxLMU), a city-wide event that brought together educators and education enthusiasts for speeches and activities. Sponsored by the LMU School of Education along with other LMU colleges and individuals, the event took place on Saturday, April 6 in Murphy Recital Hall. In a short introductory film at the beginning of the event, the curator of TED, the mother company of TEDx events, said that the goal of any TED event is to “experience the power of ideas.” And that is exactly what the five Teach for America (TFA) corps members - the creators of TEDxLMU - intended their event to do. “We want to build a stronger education community; we want to share completely new ideas about education . . . and we want to inspire some kind of action,” said Chris Coraggio, a TFA corps member, LMU graduate student and the communications director for TEDxLMU. With speakers like Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent John Deasy, the event attracted L.A.’s leading education reformers, scholars and implementers. The TEDxLMU planners hoped that this event would put LMU’s School of Education “at the forefront of the Los Angeles education conversation,” said Coraggio. TED originated in 1984 as a conference where people with big, innovative ideas gathered to share those ideas, according to TED’s website. The speeches from the conference appear on the TED website for people around the world to watch. With its growth of popularity in the past few years, TED extended its conferences by creating TEDx - independently organized TED conferences. This is what TEDxLMU was. Hosted by actor and musician Rob Benedict, the event was split into three sessionswith a Homegirl Cafeand Catering catered lunch and a final reception. Each session had four speakers who were given 20 minutes each to share their ideas about education. Not every speaker had been directly involved in education, but according to one of the event planners, TFA corps member Jordan Templeton, the idea was to take big concepts from outside professionals and incorporate them into classrooms, school administrations and school districts. “It’s all of these big ideas that education is all about and pulling from the people that have mastered this — not really in education at all - but in their own worlds,” Templeton said. The first session’s theme was “The Power of Cohesion” and the speakers shared their ideas about in-classroom strategies. The speeches were a variety of success stories from the cultural evangelist for Zappos to a Homeboy Industries member now in the See TEDx | Page 4 Neighbors distribute parking flyers Gonzaqen^j 8000 S ^ Two neighborhood residents claim they have identified 400 parking violations. By Adrien Jarvis Senior Editor For nearly a month now, several neighbors have been distributing flyers - labeled as an “advisory notice” - to LMU students, faculty and staff members who are parking in the neighborhood area surrounding LMU’s back gate. The flyer states that “Gonzaga Avenue is Zoned R-l.1.2,” and informs anyone whose car is towed to contact the law offices of Ronald A. Slater “in accordance with the [Los Angeles Municipal Code] L.A.M.C., the L.A. Planning Code and the L.A. Zoning Code.” However, according to Clarence Griffin, director of community and local government relations for LMU, “There’s no zone in which someone would be able to legally just tow your vehicle for parking in front of their house. That’s just not legitimate.” The neighbors are Robert Sawyer and Dennis Tripp, both of whom live on Gonzaga Avenue and make up the ‘Taxpayers Association" that is listed on the distributed flyers. Sawyer added that they have gotten strong support from others in the neighborhood who are “frustrated as homeowners.” So far, they said, they have not requested that any cars be towed. The men stated that with the codes listed on the flyer, they have identified 400 violations. Slater explained this by saying, “Every time a student’s parking and they are not residents of the community, they are in violation of the use of the codes.” The neighbors have been photographing the cars that regularly park in the area as a part of their documentation. Given that Gonzaga Avenue and the other streets outside the back gates are public, students are allowed to park on the streets and outside of neighborhood homes, according to Griffin. The only merits for a tow would be if the car was violating parking laws for public streets. In short, someone cannot be towed outside LMU’s back gates simply because they are parked in front of another person’s home. “These are public streets, and so all the laws that protect free usage of public space apply here,” Griffin said. “There are no current restrictions on public streets in the Westchester area.” Slater, who is an LMU alumnus, said that he was hired by Sawyer to assist with the situation, but he said he has only done “very cursory research” thus far. Sawyer admitted in an interview with the Loyolan, “I don’t think that we would be able to [legally tow cars]. I don’t think we’ve been able to uncover anything that would give us legal authority, unless they’re obviously in a red zone [or] they pose a danger.” But later in said interview, Sawyer added, “If the student body thinks that it’s maybe illegal to park in a residential zone, which it actually is, See Neighborhood | Page 2 Photo: Kevin Halladay-Glynn | Loyolan Leslie Irwin | Loyolan Special Games brings LMU students together About 400 students volunteered at the 36th annual Special Games on Saturday. For hours, LMU students coached their special athletes through games and activities. Morgan Clemenson, a sophomore psychology major, said that the day "changed [her] life." Conference celebrates interfaith dialogue The 2013 Western Jewish Studies Association Conference brings recognition to LMU Jewish Studies. By Jenna Abdou Asst. Managing Editor LMU’s Jewish Studies Program hosted the 2013 Western Jewish Studies Association Conference this weekend to celebrate its fifth anniversary of being a part of the University. Dr. Holli Levitsky, the director of the Jewish Studies Program at LMU and event coordinator, expressed the University’s excitement to be hosting the conference. “What it means for us is recognition as a program, nationally and internationally, and also recognition as a serious academic program. We put on events for the public but we also have a really strong academic institutional affiliation here,” Levitsky said. The conference’s main event was a screening of the film “Children Without a Shadow,” See Jewish Studies | Page 2 FEMINISM IN ACTION ♦ if Opinion, Page 7 Index Classifieds . 4 Opinion . 5 A&E . 8 Sports . 1 2 41>c next issue of the Liyolan will hr print «1 on April 1 1, 2013. Members of both genders sound off on the value of feminism. MON О 67° - 54° WED О 74° - 59° TUES О 68° - 58° THURS О 68° - 58° The women’s softball team won all four games against Saint Mary's College over the weekend SOFTBALL WALKS OFF Sports, Page 12