This post was updated May 16 at 12:24 a.m.
Two people were arrested during a demonstration held Thursday by pro-Palestine organizations at UCLA in remembrance of the 1948 Nakba. 
The demonstration was hosted by several campus organizations – including Students for Justice in Palestine, a temporarily suspended organization – and intended to recognize Nakba Day – which recognizes when around 700,000 Palestinians were expelled by Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. 
“The day is important to recognize today because it just demonstrates the longevity of the violence of the Zionist entity against Palestinians and the fact that it did not start October 7,” said Mohammed, an SJP spokesperson who was granted partial anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

This post was updated at 11:16 p.m.
UCLA has spent at least $213 million on the Ascend Finance Transformation project, and yet, seven years after the project’s launch, it has few concrete accomplishments.  
“I can’t say that I’ve actually seen a live screen for Ascend,” said Reem Hanna-Harwell, a former member of the project’s steering committee. 
The initial reported budget for the project was $120 million, but, according to a presentation given during the May 2024 Ascend 2.0 quarterly town hall, the estimated total cost was projected to be roughly $286 million. 
The university declined to answer exactly how much money has been spent on the project since its official start date in April 2018. 
The Ascend project involves a transformation of UCLA’s financial system – moving from the current mainframe system to Oracle Cloud, modernizing the chart of accounts and upgrading all business applications which contribute data to the central finance, research and budget systems, according to the 2021 project charter.

Spring Sing is back for the first time since 2023. After the annual student talent showcase and competition was canceled last year, the event will return to the Los Angeles Tennis Center on May 16.