new hotel-conference center

The headline may seem odd.  Conferences are held on campus all the time.  Maybe the headline should instead be “Quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast Conference held at UCLA without construction of a new campus hotel.”  Despite the notion that without building a hotel-conference center, UCLA won’t be able to disseminate its research, such dissemination happens on campus regularly as the photo shows. As for the Forecast, here is a summary: In its fourth and final quarterly report of 2012, the UCLA Anderson Forecast’s outlook for the United States says that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow at less than a 2%…

Yesterday, we noted that UCLA seems to be using its conference facilities in ways that are explicitly not linked to educational functions.  How about a wedding?  No mention of research, education, or even a UCLA connection in the video below taken from the Facebook page (above). http://www.facebook.com/uclameetings  As we have noted (over and over), the planned UCLA hotel is not allowed to take commercial business.  Lots of tax issues have been raised about the hotel but the Regents were told not to worry.  At wedding ceremonies, the tradition is to ask whether anyone has any objection to the marriage.  If…

UCLA Hospitality and Catering has a Facebook page with videos advertising its facilities for conferences.  http://www.facebook.com/uclameetingsThere is no mention of such conferences being required to have a UCLA connection.  For example, one video touts the attraction by UCLA Hospitality and Catering of a meeting of the Southern California Chapter of Meeting Planners International (MPI), a trade group of event planners.  The group’s website describes its mission: MPISCC is a member centric organization focusing on professional development for the meetings and events industries. Established in 1979, MPISCC is recognized as an award-winning chapter with approximately 700 members serving the Santa Barbara,…

UCLA has an official online newsroom: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/default.aspx On that website, you will find in a section labeled current issues – note the word “current” – a link to info on the proposed UCLA hotel-conference center: http://luskinconferencecenter.ucla.edu/ And when you visit that webpage, you will find what purports to be a timeline of events related to the hotel at: http://luskinconferencecenter.ucla.edu/ucla-coverage As this blog noted last week, a lawsuit has been filed against the hotel.  Yet as of 8 am today, there is no reference to the lawsuit on the timeline even though several days have passed, as you can see on…

Readers of this blog will know that the proposed UCLA hotel-conference center has many pitfalls, legal, tax-wise, and financial. And now the Regents and the donors are the target of a lawsuit.  This problem, as we have noted oh so many times, might have been avoided by a) scaling down the project to something reasonable, and b) talking and negotiating with those folks and interests in the community that had concerns about the project. UCLA bulled ahead, however, getting the donors to sign a letter stating that no alternative was OK.  Ironically, that step opened the door to a legal…

UCLA Newsroom  UC Board of Regents grants final approval for UCLA conference center By Steve RiteaSeptember 11, 2012 [Update, Sept. 13: The full Board of Regents has approved the project’s final design plans and a final environmental impact report.]    The University of California Board of Regents’ Committee on Grounds and Buildings today cleared the way for UCLA to begin construction next year on the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference and Guest Center, a project that will enhance civic engagement on campus and allow UCLA to compete with other universities for important academic conferences.   “We are grateful to the Regents…