UCLA

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Just a Little Patience

Byuclafaculty

If you are like me, you will have received the postcard above last week (despite the Sept. 27 date), inviting you to look at UCLA’s crime data. But if you took up the invitation on the card to visit the website, you got the message above: Under Maintenance: The site you are trying to reach is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance. The website will be accessible shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience. So we patiently await: Update: The website is back up. You can go directly to the crime data at http://www.ucpd.ucla.edu/2011/2010%20Clery%20Statistics.pdf

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Monday Afternoon Traffic Alert

Byuclafaculty

An LAObserved report yesterday suggested that getting home from UCLA this coming Monday (Oct. 24) may be complicated by an “Obamajam.” (Excerpt) President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive at LAX on board Air Force One between 4:30 and 5 p.m. on Monday, the White House just announced. This means that however he moves to the Hancock Park area for Democratic campaign fundraisers … his travel will fall during the peak time for cross-town traffic. Yeah, we’re talking Obamajam again… Full article at http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2011/10/obama_arrival_monday_will.php It’s hard to imagine that the President arriving around rush hour at LAX will not affect…

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How Big?

Byuclafaculty

How big would a 282 room hotel be? That is the size of the old proposal for a hotel/conference center that was originally slated to replace the Faculty Center. To give you an idea of its size, a new hotel has just opened in Santa Monica with only 164 rooms. 164/282 = 58%. The picture above shows that the Santa Monica hotel is quite large despite the much smaller number of rooms. As prior posts have noted, none of the private hotels in the Westwood area are as big as 282 rooms. While awaiting the revised proposal for the hotel/conference…

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Bad News for UCLA Night Owls Next Week (Unless You Stay All Night)

Byuclafaculty

Wilshire Boulevard Closure Postponed Until Monday As Part Of 405 Construction Work The contractor is anticipated to begin erecting bridge false-work at the Wilshire under-crossing on Monday, Oct. 24 through Thursday, Oct. 28, 2011 from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. The 405 construction contractor has postponed the full closure of Wilshire Boulevard until Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. This activity will require the full closure of Wilshire Blvd., from Veteran to Federal. False-work is a temporary structure used to support structures in order to hold the component in place until construction is sufficiently advanced to support itself. Sepulveda Blvd. will be…

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Groundhog Hotel?

Byuclafaculty

Are we about to repeat – and repeat? Supposedly, we are going to be receiving (soon?) a revised (?) plan for the hotel/conference center. Yet on the UCLA Newsroom website – screenshot taken today – we find an entry about the hotel/conference center which includes: Q: What is the UCLA residential conference center project? A: UCLA is planning a 295,000-square-foot residential conference center featuring 33,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, a 9,000-square-foot conference hall, a 250-seat dining room and at least 282 guest rooms. The plan also includes a new 22,500-square-foot faculty club with a separate entrance and…

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Want to go home today from UCLA?

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on this blog noted an ongoing labor dispute at the reopening Hotel Bel-Air. From LAObserved’s morning buzz comes this word of caution for today: Union hotel workers will picket the Hotel Bel-Air at 4:30 p.m. and at 5:30 p.m. march to Sunset Boulevard and Stone Canyon Drive. Traffic alerts have gone out. The earlier post was at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/10/bel-air.html

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The Sprowls Website on Computing

Byuclafaculty

What you see above is a screenshot of a website designed by Professor Emeritus R. Clay Sprowls, a professor of statistics at what is now the Anderson School from 1951 until 1990 when he retired. The dean of the Anderson School last night circulated an email obituary of Prof. Sprowls. Mentioned in the obit was the above-website which provides a history of computing at the School from the 1950s through the 1970s. Although it is largely specific to the School, I suspect there were similar events going on around the campus as computing was introduced to the university and then…

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Bel-Air

Byuclafaculty

A news note on the UCLA hotel/conference center issue. The Hotel Bel-Air, just north of campus, is about to reopen, albeit with a labor dispute in progress. And Marilyn Monroe (at left and in the video below from a 1953 visit to the Hotel) won’t be staying there this time around. From the LA Times: When the Hotel Bel-Air reopens next week after a two-year renovation, the resort’s mascot swans — Chloe, Athena and Hercules — will still occupy the lush 12-acre property visited by presidents, movie stars and other dignitaries. But absent will be most of the union workers…

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Mumps

Byuclafaculty

Arthur Ashe Center releases mumps health alert after outbreak at UC Berkeley By KAVITHA SUBRAMANIAN, October 6, 2011, Daily Bruin Off the Press blog UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center has released a mumps health alert following an outbreak at UC Berkeley this past week. At least 20 Berkeley students have reported potential mumps infections as of this evening, and hundreds of students have been waiting in line at UC Berkeley’s student health center for free vaccinations, according to the Daily Californian. No cases have been reported at UCLA… Full article at: http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/blog/off_the_press/2011/10/arthur_ashe_center_releases_mumps_health_alert_after_outbreak_at_uc_berkeley ============== One suspects that the…