The Story So Far: Part 2 – Hotel Proves Highly Embarrassing for UCLA

My previous blog entry noted the objections to the UCLA hotel/conference center raised by non-UCLA participants at the public comments session this morning. As in the case of the morning session, I was unable to record the afternoon session of the Regents’ Committee on Building and Grounds.  However, I did hear most of it.

There were presentations by Gene Block and Steve Olsen which led to a very skeptical set of questions by the Regents on the Committee.  They questioned all of the items raised by the morning witnesses. Ultimately, the Committee was not willing to conclude its session with a recommendation to endorse the project. UCLA tried to downplay what approval at this meeting would mean, indicating that it would be back with environmental plans and designs at a later meeting, maybe in September. But at the end, the decision was to carry over the matter to tomorrow’s Regents meeting of the full board without any recommendation.

The questioning went into alternatives (such as buying the W Hotel in Westwood), the high costs per room, the non-reimbursement of the parking authority for the demolition of structure 6, the needed environmental review, potential use of the hotel in ways that could remove eligibility for tax-favored financing, the artificial blending of the hotel with two other facilities, etc.  I have heard other Regents meetings in which projects were proposed. Usually, there is a presentation by the campus involved and only limited questioning of basic premises of the project. This session was very different.

Basically, what has gone wrong here was the original Morabito grandiose plan which then became the model for a somewhat scaled down and relocated project.  On this blog, we presented an alternative concept.  See http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/03/there-could-be-grand-bargain-on.html  Focus on the conference center.  Scale back the hotel aspect further.  If there is going to be a blended project, blend with the Faculty Center which is a few minutes walking distance from the revised version of the facility (and not Lake Arrowhead!).  Use some of the money for the larger project of facilitating the holding of on-campus conferences to upgrade the Faculty Center which has catering and meeting rooms already.  Make a deal with the Board of the Faculty Center that would finally regularize its status on campus in a formal way. All of this is doable.  Right now, UCLA is asking for approval of a project with which the Regents are clearly uncomfortable.  Had information not been hidden until the week of the Regents meeting, many issues might have been addressed and a scaled back feasible plan might have been developed with input from all concerned parties, including the faculty.

The outcome of the session  is an embarrassment for UCLA that was entirely avoidable.

Note: The UCLA Faculty Association will, as usual, request the audio files and post them when available.

Update: The LA Times report on the meeting is at the link below.  Scroll down in article to get to section on the hotel proposal.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0329-uc-regents-20120329,0,53919.story