Author: uclafaculty

Grand Plans for Westwood

Byuclafaculty

With the subway supposed to arrive in Westwood (someday), apparently some planners and architects have been imagining the area with not many cars. The story is athttp://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/03/2_radical_plans_for_turning_westwood_village_around.php As for the subway, below is a sketch from the MTA of the proposed Westwood station: Source: http://www.metro.net/projects_studies/westside/images/final_eir-eis/49.%20Station%20Entrance%20Location%20Report%20and%20Recommendations.pdf

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Can We Have a Room With an (Alternative) View at the Hotel Dispute?

Byuclafaculty

An article by Erica Perez appears today in the online California Watch news service on the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center that is up for consideration by the Regents next week.  Excerpts: The Luskin Center relies in the first year on a cushion of surplus revenue from the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center and the UCLA Guest House – both of which run healthy surpluses. … …”It’s disingenuous in the sense that this is a project that’s supposed to take care of itself,” said Daniel J.B. Mitchell, professor emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and School of Public Affairs,…

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The UC-Davis Pepper Spray Incident and the UCLA Hotel Seem to Raise the Same Question

Byuclafaculty

The pepper spray incident at UC-Davis and the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center matter seem to raise a common question: Do we have a problem – systemwide and on campus – about responding to Public Records Act requests?   An earlier post noted the long delay in providing the UCLA Faculty Association with the business plan for the proposed hotel/conference center.  The Faculty Association still has not received the consulting report that was supposed to be the back-up support for the plan.  Presumably, that report was available well before the Feb. 9, 2012 date the plan itself was approved. And we did…

Judge bans UC Berkeley Occupy protesters from campus

Byuclafaculty

Eight activists who participated in Occupy protests at UC Berkeley last fall have been banned from campus. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Seeman on Tuesday barred the UC Berkeley students, community members and alumni from campus except when going to class or to work there. Protesters must stay away 100 to 300 yards from all UC property… Full article at http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_20217337/judge-bans-uc-berkeley-occupy-protesters-from-campus 

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Jerry Brown Says He Could Run a Campus and Lots of Others Could, Too

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee carried a YouTube video with some text of the governor’s remarks, shortly before the CSU Board of Trustees boosted up some campus presidents’ salaries: …The Democratic governor dismissed the argument that the potential pool of college presidents is so small that salaries must be raised to remain competitive. “I think there are a lot more people that can be college presidents, maybe even some of you,” Brown told reporters. Asked if he could be one, Brown said, “I have no doubt.”  “I have no doubt that I could be a college president, and I think a number…

There Could Be a Grand Bargain on the Hotel/Conference Center That Would Meet Faculty and Other Interests and Save the Faculty Center

Byuclafaculty

UCLA has now given the Faculty Association a version of the hotel/conference center business plan dated February 9, 2012.  The problem is that the Faculty Association had a public documents request pending since last November.  There is a long interval between February 9 and March 20 when the February 9 document was made available.  (It was made available to a neighborhood group on March 19.)  You can read the document below.  If you go to page 16 of the document (page 17 of the pdf), you will see that the notion of blending the hotel with the guest house and…

Hotel/Conference Center Documents to Date

Byuclafaculty

Following yesterday’s posting of the proposed UCLA hotel/ conference center, it may be useful to have a source of past documents that relate to the proposal.  If you have tracked this issue, you know that the original plan was to demolish the Faculty Center and replace it with a 280+ room hotel/conference center. After protests, the location was shifted to Parking Structure 6. Below is a set of documents that relate to the entire history of this project, or at least those documents that have come to light.

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The Hotel Blender

Byuclafaculty

The business plan for the hotel/conference center is now on the Regents’ website.  In essence, the plan is made to work by blending the hotel/ conference center with the guest house and the Lake Arrowhead conference center. In effect, the operating surplus of these other operations is used to cover the initial shortfall relative to debt service in the proposed hotel/conference center. The new hotel runs at 60% capacity initially and rises to 70% by year 3 of its operations although it cannot take commercial business due to its tax exempt financing.  Blending the hotel with the other operations –…

Warning on Phishing

Byuclafaculty

You may have received emails purporting to be from UCLA such as the one below. Don’t respond.  Don’t click. Just delete the message. Someone is trying to steal your ID information (phishing). Dear User, We have observed suspicious activities from your Internet account. Kindly click on ucla.edu or copy and paste this link http://(address removed)  on your browser to verify your account now in orders to avoid disconnection of service. Regards, Web Admin.