UCLA

Every time a construction crane is sighted on the UCLA campus, questions are raised such as those appearing in an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.  (See the italicized text below.)  All the more reason why – if there is a sound financial plan for the proposed UCLA hotel/ conference center – it needs to be released now. California has slashed public university budgets, yet construction is booming at campuses statewide.  The University of California system has $8.9 billion in building projects under way at its 10 campuses and five medical centers, including about $2 billion at UCSF, which is…

We’re still searching for the business plan for the proposed UCLA Hotel/Conference Center.  If it hasn’t been sent to the Regents by now, it should not be on the agenda.  And if it has been sent to the Regents, it exists.  So what happened to the longstanding public documents requests for the plan made by the UCLA Faculty Association and others? We noted yesterday that the story is on the front page of the LA Business Journal this week.  Now CurbedLA has picked up the tale:http://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/03/westwood_hoteliers_fighting_uclas_campus_hotel_plans.php Like we said, we’re searching:

We are now at the two-week deadline for getting items on the Regents’ agenda for the March 27-28 meeting but there is still no business plan for the proposed UCLA Hotel/Conference Center. Plan: Where are you?

The business plan for the hotel/conference center is still being withheld.  And it is not yet on the Regents website for the upcoming March meeting.  But with the story on the front page, surely the Regents now know that something is coming.  Excerpts from story are below: Westwood Innkeepers See No Room for UCLA Hotel By Jacquelyn Ryan, 3-12-12, LA Business Journal (excerpts) A proposed UCLA hotel and conference center – newly scaled down and moved to satisfy upset faculty and neighbors – is finally heading to the UC Regents this month for review.  But even if the $152 million…

Time is a complicated thing to understand.  For example, today in the LA Times today you will read that:Daylight saving time began at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, meaning the clocks “spring forward” one hour. The change will mean that there will be more hours of daylight…  (italics added) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/daylight-savings-time-today-.html And just as the LA Times seems to be chronologically (and astronomically) challenged, so, too, does whoever is hanging on to the top secret business plan for the hotel/conference center.   To get the plan before the Regents meeting in late March, it will have to be released this coming week. The…

The revised business plan for the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center – now to replace parking structure #6 – is reportedly due to be unveiled to the Regents at their meeting in late March.  The deadline for getting the report on the agenda for that meeting is fast approaching.  Campus Academic Senate review is also needed. And requests have been filed by the Faculty Association and others for a copy of the plan.So far, no plan has been released.  But you can hear it calling out from Murphy Hall:

The state capitol today may be occupied by the 99%.  But it is unlikely that the occupancy rate for the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center will be that high.  Keep your eye on that variable when the business plan for the project is released. As we noted yesterday and the day before, we still have not seen the business plan for the hotel/conference center, although the UCLA Faculty Association requested it long ago and although the next Regents meeting is coming up towards the end of March.  If the plan is not released soon, it won’t be eligible for consideration by…