Category: UCLA

College Diversity Requirement Gathers Support

academicsenatelogoThe following statement has been circulating among faculty today and has about 80 co-signers as of Wednesday afternoon.

We Support the College Diversity Requirement

We, the undersigned faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, express our enthusiastic support for a College Diversity Requirement for students within the College of Letters and Science. Our signatures reflect our confidence in the process, proposal, and the expected benefits of such a requirement for our students and our campus more generally. We recognize fully that for over 30 years, generations of students have worked hard alongside faculty in achieving this goal and now is the time to bring that long effort to fruition. Through enactment of this measure we will join our colleagues throughout the University of California system in providing pedagogy consistent with our mission to educate the next generation of engaged intellectual leaders in a complex and interconnected global society.

For more information about the College Diversity Initiative please visit votediversity.ucla.edu

Emily Abel, Health Policy and Management

Michael Alfaro, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Institute for Society and Genetics

Paul Barber, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Ali Behdad, English

Charlene Black Villaseñor, Art History

Maylei Blackwell, Chavez Chicana/o Studies

Dan Blumstein, Chair, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Karen Brodkin, Anthropology

Carole Browner, Anthropology

Allison Carruth, English, Institute of Environment & Sustainability

Denise Chavira, Psychology

Amander Clark, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology

King-Kok Cheung, English

Keith Camacho, Asian American Studies

Erica Cartmill, Anthropology

Tiffany Cvrkel, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Elizabeth DeLoughrey, English

Robin L. H. Derby, History

Michelle Erai, Gender Studies

Christopher Evans, Psychiatry; Director, Brain Research Institute

Robert Fink, Musicology

Jacob Foster, Sociology

Susan Foster, World Arts & Cultures

Lowell Gallagher, English

Adriana Galvan, Psychology, Brain Research Institute

Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Chair, LGBT Studies Program, Chavez Chicana/o Studies

David Glanzman, Integrative Biology and Physiology

Yogita Goyal, English

Carlos Grijalva, Psychology

Akhil Gupta, Anthropology

Sondra Hale, Anthropology, Gender Studies

Tama Hasson, Integrative Biology and Physiology

Courtney Heldreth, Dean’s Life Science Advisory Committee, Psychology Grad Student

Tobias Higbie, History

Alexander Hoffmann, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics; Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences

Grace Hong, Asian American Studies

Darnell M. Hunt, Sociology, Director, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies

Luisa Iruela-Arispe, Chair, Molecular Biology Institute; Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Alicia Izquierdo, Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience

Tracy Johnson, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology

Robin D. G. Kelley, History

Chris Kelty, Institute for Society and Genetics, Information Studies, Anthropology

Raymond Knapp, Chair, Musicology

Kathleen Komar, Comparative Literature

Paul Kroskrity, Anthropology

Anna Lau, Psychology

Jinqi Ling, Asian American Studies, English

Francoise Lionnet, French and Francophone Studies

Arthur Little, English

Jamie Lloyd Smith, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Kirk E. Lohmueller, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

William Lowry, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Jessica Lynch Alfaro, Institute for Society and Genetics

Kathleen McHugh, Comparative Literature, Gender Studies

Muriel C. McClendon, History

Michael Meranze, History

Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Anthropology

Harryette Mullen, English

William I. Newman, Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences

Paul Ong, Urban Planning

Aaron Panofsky, Public Policy, Institute for Society and Genetics

Jeffrey Prager, Sociology

Todd Presner, Germanic Languages

Gerardo Ramirez, Psychology

Marilyn Raphael, Geography

Jan Reiff, History, Statistics, Digital Humanities

Alvaro Sagasti, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology

Lawren Sack, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Van Savage, Biomathematics

Jenny Sharpe, English

Ross Shideler, Comparative Literature, Scandinavian Section

Dwayne D Simmons, Integrative Biology and Physiology

Russ Thornton, Anthropology

Christopher C. Tilly, Urban Planning, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

Aaron Tornell, Economics

Belinda Tucker, Psychiatry, Institute of American Cultures

Christel H. Uittenbogaart, Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics

Blaire Van Valkenburgh, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Abel Valenzuela, Jr., Chair, Chavez Chicana/o Studies,

Stephanie White, Integrative Biology and Physiology

Norton Wise, Institute for Society and Genetics, History

William Worger, History

Richard Yarborough, English

Pamela Yeh, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

David Yoo, Asian American Studies

Charles E. Young, UCLA Chancellor Emeritus

Maite Zubiaurre, Spanish & Portuguese

College of Letters and Science Faculty Vote on Diversity Requirement

academicsenatelogoUCLA faculty with appointments in the College of Letters and Science are voting this week on a proposed Diversity Requirement for undergraduate students  in the College. The vote is open between October 24th and October 31st.

The Academic Senate has an extensive informational site (votediversity.ucla.edu) that includes documentation on the requirement, a frequently asked questions section, and a forum for faculty to share information and views on the requirement. The forum includes six separate faculty statements in support of the requirement, and one statement in opposition. An additional statement in support circulating on Wednesday has garnered about 80 co-signers.

The proposal envisions undergraduates taking one 4-unit course that “substantially focuses on diversity issues” and “takes seriously issues of diversity with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, language, nationality, citizenship status and/or place of origin.”  Courses would be approved by a Senate committee appointed by the Undergraduate Council, could be offered from any university department, and could include community and service learning as well as traditional courses.

The vote is open until October 31st, 2014. Past efforts have seen very low turnout, so be sure to vote if you are in the College of Letters and Sciences!

 

 

Dig a Deeper Hole?

The plaintiffs in the case against the UCLA Grand Hotel have filed an amended brief.  You can read it at the link below.  There are actually two cases, one involving environmental and other matters and another regarding the tax issue.  The environmental case will be heard in September.  And there is legal skirmishing around the tax case.



The tax issue is basically that if the hotel is a commercial operation, it has to pay taxes just as would any other hotel.  There is also an issue of whether the Regents can run a commercial enterprise and, if that's what they are doing, whether tax-exempt bonds (which are part of the "business plan") can be used.  Note that the donation covers only about a third of the cost of the hotel so the business plan has to produce a lot of money.  Taxes and non-exempt bonds would raise the costs.  Delays would raise costs.  The environmental lawsuit claims that the required environmental review was not properly done, that there were irregularities regarding the administrative and regental process, and that there were improper conditions imposed by the donors, among other allegations.

Right now, of course, the university is busy digging a deeper hole on the site of the Grand Hotel, as the photos show.  It is confident that creating facts on the ground is the best way to proceed. It is sure it will prevail in the lawsuits.  But let's suppose that there is, say, a 10% chance the university is wrong.  Does it make sense to just bull along?  The university bulled along on the Japanese Garden affair instead of trying to work with the plaintiffs in that case, and now litigation has put that matter on hold.  The university didn't promptly apologize to Judge Cunningham who was stopped in Westwood by campus police and now has a $10 million complaint on its hands.  So maybe bulling along is not such a good strategy. This blog has pointed out in each instance that there are advantages in talking, negotiating, compromising, all to no avail.  So it is probably pointless to suggest talking-negotiating-compromising in the case of the Grand Hotel. But we do suggest it. Why chance digging a deeper legal hole?


What would Judge Cunningham say?

The LA Times picks up a story about an anti-Asian flyer – possibly from the Daily Bruin‘s earlier coverage – that has provoked student protests.  You can find the Times‘ story at:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucla-police-black-judge-racial-profiling-20140203,0,4010058.story

Faithful blog readers will know that we are tracking the sad tale of LA Superior Court Judge David Cunningham III who was caught driving while black in Westwood by UCLA police and has filed a $10 million complaint against the university.  The good judge is a past head of the LA Police Commission.  There was no apology from Murphy Hall.  There was just a vague statement that we are sad that Judge Cunningham feels bad.  But everything that was done in the traffic stop was said to be on the up and up.

What would Judge Cunningham make of the following excerpt from the LA Times article on the prompt response by the chancellor to the anti-Asian flyer?

…UCLA Chancellor Gene Block has asked campus police to investigate the matter, according to a statement released Monday. Block has expressed “his disgust and frustration” over the flier and pledged that the campus will “combat racism and bigotry so that the campus can be the welcoming, respectful environment our community deserves.”…

We don’t know what Judge Cunningham would say.  But in defense of the university, we do have some idea about what Ralph Waldo Emerson would say.  Something about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds, perhaps?

Note: The earlier Daily Bruin coverage of the anti-Asian flyer can be found at http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/10/rally-protests-incidents-of-discrimination-on-ucla-campus/  The Bruin article notes an incident a few years ago in which an anti-Asian video was posted on YouTube by a UCLA student.  At that time, the chancellor immediately responded via his own Youtube video:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6feGp0GQVJ8?feature=player_detailpage]

Chinese Dissent at UCLA

UCLA has a variety of exchange arrangements with China as the image of the UCLA Confucius Institute on the left suggests.  While these arrangements can be mutually beneficial, the university can also find itself in a difficult position when and if things go wrong.  The NY Times carries a story dated Feb. 9 about a professor from Peking University who was a visiting professor at UCLA.  While here, he made some statements that ultimately led to his discharge at his home university and to quasi-exile in the U.S.:

…Peking University allowed Professor Xia to leave China to become a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, starting in July 2011 and then at Stanford the next year.
But in March 2012, as Professor Xia’s year at U.C.L.A. was nearing its end, Wen Jiabao, who was prime minister of China, gave a speech calling for reform of the Communist Party’s leadership and the country. Professor Xia took to social media, including his blog, to urge gatherings around China to press for change.  His actions angered the Chinese authorities, who ordered him back to China in January 2013. He was told in June that there would be a vote on his employment at the university, and in October he was dismissed. Peking University has partnerships with many American universities, and as word spread that he would most likely be fired, Professor Xia became a symbol of Chinese scholars’ limited academic freedom…
Full story at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/us/chinese-dissident-lands-at-cato-institute-with-a-caution-to-colleges.html
Faithful blog readers will recall this item related to the most recent UC Regents meeting:
… There is also a proposal for a joint lab in China that would conduct clinical trials.  Significant skepticism was expressed by regents about the risks entailed and having UCLA’s name linked to an outside entity – a private firm.  [Only one regent seemed to want to ask whether clinical trials in China are subject to the same kinds of controls, regulations, and human rights protections, that exist in the US.  UCLA says it will apply US standards.]…
From: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2014/01/something-to-think-about-while-waiting.html
We look forward to any comments that anyone in Murphy Hall might have about Professor Xia.

Networking

Simon and Garfunkel once sang about the “Sound of Silence.”  When rain forced the weekly networking event at Anderson indoors last Thursday, silence was not what was heard:

It was more like a typical deafening LA trendy restaurant.  Back in Simon and Garfunkel’s day, the occupation of choice was in “plastics.”  Soon it will be in hearing aids.