UCLA History: 4 Grads
June is graduation month for most UCLA departments. Above four UCLA grads pose for the camera in 1939. (Yours truly is traveling for the next few days so blogging may be lighter.)
UCLA
Rush, Rush: The Grand Hotel Can’t Wait!!
UCLA seems to be in a big rush to create “facts on the ground” by demolishing parking structure #6, the site of the planned Grand Hotel. The powers-that-be certainly apparently don’t want to wait for the various lawsuits to play out. From the Daily Bruin today: …Demolition of Parking Structure 6 will begin in early July. Construction crews will remove the structure in preparation for building the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference and Guest Center, which will be built in Parking Structure 6’s current location… Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2013/06/03/luskin-center-construction-to-demolish-parking-structure-6-relocate-drivers/ Some folks just have to hurry:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbhvZ2y1V80?feature=player_detailpage]
Less of a There in Oakland?
You may have missed the op ed by Prof. David Myers, chair of the UCLA History Dept. in yesterday’s LA Times. In it, he took note of the imminent departure of UC president Yudof to call for a substantial scaling back of UC’s headquarters operation in Oakland and more campus-level autonomy. He also called for local boards of oversight for the resulting more-autonomous campuses. Excerpt: As the University of California regents get down to the hard work of recruiting a new president before Mark G. Yudof retires in August, they might consider an even bolder move: a dramatic downsizing of…
Those Empty Westwood Stores
Despite efforts to revitalize Westwood, there remain all of those empty storefronts up and down Westwood Boulevard between campus and Wilshire. Yet there is lots of foot traffic related to the university in Westwood and the proximity of a large student community. So why the empty stores despite all of those students? The LA Weekly thinks it has the answer: Living in Westwood is like being trapped in Footloose’s Bomont, Georgia.* There are no clubs, no open mics, no student centers, no anything. It’s bad. They’re even shutting down one of the only two bars students go to with much…
Udacity’s MOOC Contract Details: Lesson in Audacity? (And then there is GlaxoSmithKline’s invitation to UCLA faculty)
Inside Higher Ed today is running a feature on a contract between MOOC supplier Udacity and Georgia Tech to run a master’s program in computer science. The essence of the story is that the contract calls for some of the folks actually running the course to be company employees: …Georgia Tech this month announced its plans to offer a $6,630 online master’s degree to 10,000 new students over the next three years without hiring much more than a handful of new instructors. Georgia Tech and Udacity, a Silicon Valley-based startup, will work with AT&T, which is putting up $2 million to…
UCLA Pre-History: Cemetery
The veterans’ cemetery in Westwood long predates UCLA’s presence in the area. The cemetery dates back to 1889 and originally was meant for Civil War veterans. However, the statue at the Wilshire Blvd. entrance (see photo) refers to the Spanish-American War of 1898: “The United Spanish War Veterans monument, also known as the Spirit of ’98, is a bright white marble composition of three figures completed in 1950 by sculptor Roger Noble Burnham. The memorial crumbled after a 1971 earthquake. In 1973, sculptor David Wilkens re-created the monument out of concrete and plaster, reinforcing it with rebar. The plaque from…
Movie Delay
The old AVCO movie theater on Wilshire a block or so east of Westwood Blvd. was supposed to be reopened by now after reconstruction as a high-end, upscale affair with prices that seem beyond student budgets. According to LAObserved, the reopening has been delayed until maybe Thanksgiving due to discovery of asbestos issues in the theater. That is, the revamped theater will be open again around Thanksgiving or beyond as-best-as we can tell. Full story at http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2013/05/delay_in_opening_wes.php.
UCLA History: Smile for the Camera
UCLA Dentistry grads in 1968
Food Gift for Thought
From the Westwood-Century City Patch: A $4 million gift to the UCLA School of Law will go toward establishing a program to study and improve food law and policy, it was announced Friday. The Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy, said to be the first program of its kind at a major law school, will explore ways to hasten improvements in food safety, distribution and access, according to UCLA. The gift from the Resnick Family Foundation provides for as much as another $3 million in matching endowment funds. Lynda and Stewart Resnick ,who own such companies as POM Wonderful,…
Hope for UCLA Commuters?
A new northbound lane of the 405 Freeway was opened Friday between the 10 Freeway and Santa Monica Boulevard… The additional lane stretches for 1.7 miles and opened at 5 a.m. It’s the latest mark of progress for the $1-billion, multiyear 405 Freeway widening project that has been inundated with delays and cost overruns, frustrating commuters and residents alike for years… Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-new-lane-405-freeway-20130524,0,4779451.story A new dawn? Let’s manage our expectations: