UCLA History: Royce Hall Under Construction
Two photos of Royce Hall Under Construction in 1928. You can see live webcam shots of Royce anytime the camera is functioning at http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/bruincam/default.htm
miscellaneous
Why Johnny Can’t Write
The piece to which a link is supplied below from yesterday’s LA Times is celebratory about the LA Unified School District’s limit on homework. In fact – (editorial comment from yours truly) – the mindset behind the policy goes a long way toward explaining why Johnny (too often) cannot write a basic essay despite being admitted into UCLA. Whatever else you may be choosing to celebrate on July 4th, there is no cause for celebration here. Homework overload: For certain families, enough is enough: As of Friday, homework can account for no more than 10% of a student’s grade in…
Alternative Reading Mode
As noted in a previous entry, we now have an alternative way of reading past postings on this blog. The file for April 1 – June 30, 2011 can be found below. It has some odd formatting and omits the videos. However, you can go back in time on this blog directly in the standard way. Open publication – Free publishing – More blog
A Diversion from the Obvious: Doing What They Do Best?
Let’s give the state and UC budgets a rest for a moment. Many faculty during the summer travel to conferences or just vacations. Yours truly has been traveling of late on American Airlines and noted that boarding the plane has become chaotic. There seems to be no pattern in use. Many airlines board from the rear on the idea that aisles closer to the front won’t be blocked by passengers trying to stow luggage or get settled. If you randomize the entry, you get blocked aisles. But the airline has decided that random will be the new system. Now it…
UCLA History: Moving Bonds
From the UCLA History Project comes this tale of an LA City bond measure approved by voters in 1925 that enabled UCLA to move from its Vermont Avenue campus to Westwood. New media, record voter turnout and engaged young voters – these were the stories that riveted citizens on May 5, 1925. The biggest issue for Bruins was Proposition 2, a city bond measure that would raise about 70% of the funds needed to purchase a 200-acre parcel for the Southern Branch of the University of California. Students and young alumni joined together to conduct a colorful and noisy campaign….
UCLA History: Building Royce Hall
Three pictures illustrate the construction of Royce Hall in the late 1920s, as the Westwood campus of UCLA was being built. We see a model of Royce being examined (bottom), the foundation for the building being laid (right), and (top) a shot inside Royce as it is being completed.
UC-San Diego First-Generation Students Get Help From Retired Professors
Is this example from UC-San Diego a suggestion of something UCLA should consider doing? At UC-San Diego, First-Generation Students Get Help From Retired Professors: Experienced scholars guide the uninitiated in an unusual mentoring program Molly Redden, Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/19/11 (Excerpt) When Lila Gitesatani arrived on the University of California’s San Diego campus as a freshman, she had a multitude of questions: How should she choose a major, go about selecting courses, or even explore activities on campus? But Ms. Gitesatani was limited in where she could turn for advice. As a first-generation college student, she says, her parents…
New Technology for Viewing This Blog’s Archives
Technology marches on! Here is a new way to access this blog’s archives. You can view it in segments as a pdf. Of course, the videos and audios disappear with almost no trace in that format. And there is some odd formatting, particularly in tables. However, you also have the original format option running along the right side of the blog if you want everything to be as it was intended. For the pdf versions, see below: June-September 2010: Open publication – Free publishing – More blog October-December 2010 Open publication – Free publishing – More blog January-March 2011 Open…
UCLA History: The Kirkeby
Kirkeby Center – which is now the building housing the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum at Westwood and Wilshire – was once topped by an upscale restaurant, The Kirkeby.
UCLA History: Blimp View (of and from)
View of the Goodyear Blimp over UCLA in 1930 (below) and a view from the Blimp of UCLA (right).