UCLA History: Former Presidents Visit

Jimmy Carter visits with Prof. Michael Intriligator at UCLA's Burkle Center (2001)

Bill Clinton visits with Acting Chancellor Norm Abrams (2006)

UCLA History: Garden Visit

Hannah Carter visits her namesake Japanese Garden in an undated photo. As readers of this blog will know, UCLA has made a controversial proposal to sell the garden.

UCLA History: From the Air

In this aerial view of Westwood and UCLA in 1965, not much is to be seen west of Westwood Boulevard once you enter the campus.  The building on Wilshire under construction now houses Occidental Petroleum and UCLA's Hammer Museum (which UCLA essentially inherited after the death of Occidental CEO Armand Hammer).

China Care Bruins Program

There is an interesting story today in the Daily Bruin about the UCLA China Care Bruins Program.  Excerpt:

Six-year-old Ruby Knowlton held her arms up to Kim Tran, asking to be picked up. Smiling fondly, Tran, a second-year biochemistry student, picked the young girl up, swinging her around in a circle. From the way they interacted with one another at a mentorship event at UCLA last Sunday, Ruby and Tran could almost be mistaken for sisters. As Ruby’s “Big Buddy,” Tran has watched her grow for the past year and a half.  

The two were paired together through UCLA’s China Care Bruins club, which matches UCLA students with adoptees from China who live in the Los Angeles area...

Full story http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2012/02/students_in_ucla039s_china_care_bruins_play_039big_buddy039_role_for_adoptees/

The organization has a website at http://www.chinacarebruins.org/

UCLA History: Bear

Chancellor Young examines statue of the UCLA bear in 1984, shortly after its unveiling.

UCLA Report Calls for Overhaul of Community College Transfer Process & Master Plan

Inside Higher Ed today pointed me toward the UCLA Civil Rights Project and its series of three reports critical of the transfer process from community colleges to four-year colleges.  One of the reports was co-authored by former UC President Richard Atkinson.

The summary from Inside Higher Ed is at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/02/15/racial-transfer-gap-california-community-colleges

A press release from the Civil Rights Project is reproduced below:

CRP Calls for Fundamental Changes in California's Community Colleges

Date Published: February 14, 2012

Almost 75% of all Latino and two-thirds of all Black students who go on to higher education in California go to a community college, yet in 2010 only 20% of all transfers to four-year institutions were Latino or African American. Pathways to the baccalaureate are segregated; students attending low-performing high schools usually go directly into community colleges that transfer few students to 4-year colleges. Conversely, a handful of community colleges serving high percentages of white, Asian and middle class students are responsible for the majority of all transfers in the state. California ranks last among the states in the proportion of its college students who attend a 4-year institution, which is a key factor in the state’s abysmal record on BA attainment. In a state in which half of all high school graduates are Black and Latino, this situation spells economic disaster for the future of the state.

February 14, 2012                Contact:  310-267-5562; crp@ucla.edu
--For Immediate Release--
                   

Civil Rights Project Reports Call for Fundamental Changes in California’s Community Colleges

--Los Angeles--Almost 75% of all Latino and two-thirds of all Black students who go on to higher education in California go to a community college, yet in 2010 only 20% of all transfers to four-year institutions were Latino or African American. Pathways to the baccalaureate are segregated; students attending low-performing high schools usually go directly into community colleges that transfer few students to 4-year colleges. Conversely, a handful of community colleges serving high percentages of white, Asian and middle class students are responsible for the majority of all transfers in the state.  California ranks last among the states in the proportion of its college students who attend a 4-year institution, which is a key factor in the state’s abysmal record on BA attainment.  In a state in which half of all high school graduates are Black and Latino, this situation spells economic disaster for the future of the state.

The California Community College system is not oblivious to these problems, but the newest report by the Student Success Task Force, Advancing Student Success in the California Community Colleges, falls far short of making recommendations that can turn the situation around, and fails to address the most urgent problems. Three studies released today by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA shed light on the mechanisms underlying California’s poor record of transfer from community colleges to four-year campuses and suggest what can and must be done to improve the capacity of the community colleges to help students of color gain BA degrees.

“It is time to have an honest conversation with the people of California about making improvements in our higher education system,” stressed Civil Rights Project Co-Director, Patricia Gándara.  “Either we make bold changes in the system or we consign the majority of our students of color to a life with few prospects, and we condemn the state to a future in decline.”

The first report, Building Pathways to Transfer:  Community Colleges that Break the Chain of Failure for Students of Color, by Patricia Gándara, Elizabeth Alvarado, Anne Driscoll and Gary Orfield, examines practices in five colleges with disproportionately high rates of transfer for students of color from low-performing high schools.  The study finds that a core of personnel in these colleges have lived the experiences of these students and dedicated themselves to the goal of transferring them. To a great extent, these staff rely on the college’s outreach efforts to prepare the students even before they arrive on the campus. 

Nonetheless, the success of even these higher-transfer colleges is limited because, like most other colleges in the system, they have not fundamentally changed the structural impediments to transfer posed by years of requirements for developmental education or remedial coursework.  The Civil Rights Project report calls for increased emphasis on outreach to low-performing high schools to prepare students for success in the community colleges and a radical rethinking of developmental education, reducing the remedial coursework barriers significantly. 

Co-Director Gary Orfield notes, “We were shocked to find that in colleges where many students need intensive counseling, counselors have faculty status and less than half of their time is spent on one-to-one counseling. This arrangement makes no sense.”

The second report, Unrealized Promises: Unequal Access, Affordability, and Excellence at Community Colleges in Southern California, by Mary Martinez Wenzl and Rigoberto Marquez, provides a very detailed analysis of all the high schools and community colleges in Southern California and shows overwhelmingly that segregated high schools with weak records feed students into heavily minority community colleges where few students successfully transfer. 

The report clarifies that California high schools are extremely segregated by race, ethnicity, poverty, and language background, and those schools offer less adequate curricula, fewer experienced and qualified teachers and much lower graduation rates. If the promise of fair access to higher education is to be realized, the report makes clear, then it has to happen in the community colleges. 

“Unfortunately,” says Orfield, “the community colleges tend to repeat the patterns of the low performing high schools, resulting in few transfers—this makes a mockery of the promise of equal opportunity.”

The third report, Beyond the Master Plan: The Case for Restructuring Baccalaureate Education in California, finds that California is one of the nation’s least successful states in terms of college completion. Researchers Saul Geiser and Richard Atkinson, the state’s preeminent analysts of higher education statistics, demonstrate the very powerful relationship between BA completion rates and beginning college at four-year campuses. The Master Plan is a failure, the report concludes, and requires radical change. 

Geiser and Atkinson further stress that California remains critically short of four-year public colleges, continually failing to expand them as the population soars.  They recommend, among other remedies, that some of the excellent community colleges be given authority to grant B.A. degrees, an important expansion of capacity at a far lower price than building new four-year campuses.  

“No state has bet its future so heavily on community colleges,” Gándara notes, “but these schools need resources and major reforms. Unless we make the colleges work for all Californians, we gamble with our future.”

Click here to download Building Pathways to Transfer:  Community Colleges that Break the Chain of Failure for Students of Color

Click here to download Unrealized Promises: Unequal Access, Affordability, and Excellence at Community Colleges in Southern California

Click here to download Beyond the Master Plan: The Case for Restructuring Baccalaureate Education in California

Source of Press release:

http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/news/press-releases/crp-calls-for-fundamental-changes-in-californias-community-colleges

Reminder: Obama Jam Tomorrow...

...But not in the immediate UCLA area.  Your commute in the afternoon could be affected, depending on where you are going.

Traffic Notice Partial Closure

Description

President Obama Los Angeles Visit When: Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Where: Los Angeles Westside
Impacts: The President will be landing at LAX, then helicoptered to the VA Hospital, and finally driving to Holmby Hills. Rolling closures of streets along the route, meaning that as the motorcade passes, impacted streets and intersections will close, but open again quickly afterwards. Prolonged street closures are not anticipated. Specific details regarding the route are not available for security reasons.
Mitigation: According to the information that is available from LA City officials, UCLA is not expected to be negatively impacted to any significant degree. Key intersections will be staffed with City of Los Angeles Traffic Officers during the rolling closures.

LA Times Editorial on UCLA Hospital/Blue Shield Dispute Has a Buried Lede*

In yesterday’sLA Times – if you missed it – there was an editorial about a dispute betweenBlue Shield and the UCLA Hospital.  Yetbeyond saying that controlling costs and being efficient are Good Things, theeditorial seemed to miss the point - even though the point is it the text of theeditorial.  Excerpt below:

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Blue Shield of California has suspended itsrelationship with UCLA Medical Center, one of the state's top hospitals, in a dispute overthe cost of treating patients there. It's a disturbing sign of things to comein the healthcare industry, as insurers become increasingly resistant to thecost increases that they routinely passed along in previous years. Although thestandoff is hard on the patients who've lost access to UCLA, Blue Shield isright about one thing: The healthcare industry is on an unsustainable path, andevery segment must start focusing on cost control.

…Hospitals costs have risen particularly rapidly, with the averagedaily fee for a bed in an acute-care ward more than tripling since 2000. UCLA'sreimbursements from Blue Shield have almost doubled in the last five yearsalone, the insurer says. That's partlybecause the university has been shifting onto Blue Shield some of the expenseof treating patients with Medicare, Medi-Cal or no insurance. But it's a trendthat even University of California officials acknowledge cannot continue.

…UChealth officials say they've gotten the message; that's why they created the Centerfor Healthcare Quality and Innovation in October 2010 to find ways todeliver more effective healthcare services and to control costs. The universitysystem and Blue Shield also have agreed on a new approach at UC San FranciscoMedical Center that shares the financial risk of providing care for certainpolicyholders, holding cost increases at or below the rate of inflation. Thequestion is how to bring that focus on efficiency and value to UCLA and therest of the UC system. Here's hoping the two sides find an answer soon.

Full editorial at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-blueshield-20120213,0,3668965.story

-----

In short, a key problem – according to the editorial itself –is an external one reflecting the cost shifting that goes on in the currentsystem of national health which requires providers to care for the non-insuredand to make up for government programs that provide less than fullreimbursement.

-----

*“Burying the lede” is a common stylistic error injournalism. To bury a lede (rhymes with “bead”) is to hide the most importantinformation within a news story instead of putting it up front where readerscan find it immediately.  Source: http://www.avwrites.com/?p=15

-----

Meanwhile, ourbest advice is not to get sick:

Love at UCLA on Valentine's Day

The UCLA campus is so lovable that couples come to it to have engagement photos taken, as per above.

But sometimes, even at UCLA, all does not go well in affairsof the heart:

On the other hand, boy (Houdini) did get girl (the hard way)in 1919 in Santa Monica:

PS: Faithful readers of this blog will know that things can work out at UCLA, too, as we demonstrated last fall:
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/10/modest-proposal-at-ucla.html

UCLA's Teofilo F. Ruiz awarded the National Humanities Medal, President Obama has announced

Inside Higher Ed thismorning pointed me to a news item from last Friday: Teofilo Ruiz, a professor of history and of Spanish andPortuguese at UCLA – whose unusual faculty webpage photo appears at left - wasawarded a National Humanities Medal according to a White House announcement.  The actual awarding of the medal will takeplace today.

Excerpt from the officialprofile released by the White House: 

Ruizhas also earned accolades for his teaching, including being named U.S.professor of the year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement ofTeaching in 1995 and receiving UCLA’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 2008. Hedescribes his teaching style as “frantic, hectic.” As a graduate student, Ruizadmired professors like Carl Schorske, who could deliver an elegantwell-crafted lecture from behind a podium. “I can’t do that. It’s not in myabilities,” he says. “I engage the students by combining the personal with thescholarly.”

He also doesn’t use notes. “I can’t explain howit happens. I walk into the classroom. I am in an absolute panic even afterthirty-nine years of doing this. And then something possesses me for one hourand fifteen minutes and I cannot stop. I am like the Energizer Bunny.”

Full story on Ruiz and othermedal winners in Inside Higher Ed at: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/02/13/obama-announces-2011-national-humanities-medals#ixzz1mHNQqATJ 

White House announcement at http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/20120210.html

Profile of Prof. Ruiz as part of the announcement at http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/2011_Medalists.html#No7

UCLA announcement at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-wins-national-humanities-228694.aspx

UCLA History: Mayor Speaks

Not all demonstrations on the UCLA campus during the Vietnam War opposed the war.  Above in 1966, LA Mayor Sam Yorty speaks to group supporting the war.

UCLA History: Fowler

Before the Fowler Museum moved to the UCLA campus, it stood on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills as this 1978 photo shows.

UCLA History: Children's Hospital

Photo from LA Public Library collection.  Photograph caption dated January 9, 1958 reads, "Marion Davies presents check for $1,500,000 to build a new Marion Davies Children's Wing at UCLA Medical Center to Edwin W. Pauley, chairman of the board of regents. Watching are Vern O. Knudsen, UCLA vice chancellor, and Dr. Stafford L. Warren (right), dean of the UCLA Medical School. An architect's sketch of the medical center is in the background." In 1998, the hospital was renamed the Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA in recognition of the gift made to the hospital by Mattel, Inc. 

Second Coming of the Hotel/Conference Center Business Plan

Readers of this blog will know that the hotel/conference center business plan originally released when the structure was planned to replace the Faculty Center did not make sense.

Since then, although UCLA has released conceptual hints about the hotel design and plan, no actual plan has been produced.

Below is what appears to be the schedule for the second coming of the business plan and other elements of the proposal:   

March 27: Plan goesto the Regents for Budget Review.  So far, the business planis apparently still in preparation (!) and so it has not been released to the UCLA FacultyAssociation which made a Public Records Act request for it.  It will be releasedbefore the March 27 date - but when is unknown.  The project will use taxexempt financing.   That creates a barrier to commercialactivities.

Draft EnvironmentalImpact Report: late April. 

Public hearing:Mid-May

Final EnvironmentalImpact Report: late July or early August

Design Approval:Regents' September Meeting 

UCLA History: Level Parking

Parking in the pre-parking structure age on the UCLA campus (1961).

Letters Arriving on Proposed UCLA Japanese Garden Sale

Click on the letter to enlarge it.

Regents' Court Petition to Allow Sale of UCLA Japanese Garden

As readers of this blog know, we have been posting documents related to UCLA's proposed sale of the Japanese Garden.  The university's ownership of the garden followed from a donation by Regent Edward Carter in the 1960s.  Carter's wealth arose from his department stores.  You can see his signature on the stock certificate from Broadway-Hale and later one from Carter-Hawley-Hale.

The donation by Carter was modified by an agreement in the early 1980s.  However, because the sequence of agreements required that the university maintain the garden in perpetuity, once UCLA determined to sell the garden, it had to go to court to show that the sale should be allowed due to changed circumstances.  The prior post on this blog included a 2009 task force report seeking sources of revenue during the budget crisis.  The court filing followed that report.

You can read the petition made on behalf of the UC Regents to allow the sale below.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ucla

The 2009 "Toolbox" Report and the Japanese Garden (& Other Issues)

Given the ongoing budget crisis, UCLA formed a task force to look at various revenue-generating options.  The report of the task force is dated April 24, 2009.  Among the possibilities considered was the sale of various properties including the Japanese Garden.  The report indicates that consultations with the state Attorney General were underway well before the 2010 court decision that permitted the sale, even though it was inconsistent with the existing terms of the donation.


The report explores other areas such as faculty pay, fund raising, "branding," and tuition.  You can read the full report at the link below (scroll towards the bottom of this post.


Below is the Table of Contents.  Below that is the section on the Japanese Garden:

I. Task Force Chargeand Process p. 1

II. Principles forReview of Revenue Creation Proposals p. 2

III. Summary ofRecommendations p. 4

IV. Major Issues andRecommendations

                   Student Fees p. 6

                   Enrollment of Nonresident Undergraduates p. 14

                   Development of New Academic Programs & Services p. 15

                   Research Funding p. 19

                   Faculty Compensation Plan p. 21

                   Brand Extension Licensing p. 23

                   Fundraising Opportunities p. 25

                   Sale of Underutilized Property p. 27

Appendix A: UCLAApproval Process for Revenue-Generating

Courses and Programs p.30

Appendix B: RevenueGenerating Course and Programs

Administrative Guide p.34

Appendix C: Guidelines for endowedchairs p. 36

=============

Task Force Membership:

• Kathryn Atchison, Vice Provost for Intellectual Property and Industry Relations
• Hilu Bloch, Associate Dean & CAO, Anderson Graduate School of Management
• Robin Garrell, Professor and Vice Chair, Academic Senate
• Janina Montero, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
• Sam Morabito, Administrative Vice Chancellor
• Steven A. Olsen, Vice Chancellor, Finance, Budget & Capital Programs (chair)
• No-Hee Park, Dean, School of Dentistry
• Cathy Sandeen, Dean, University Extension
• Michael Schill, Dean, School of Law
• Rhea Turteltaub, Vice Chancellor, External Affairs
• David Unruh, Assistant Provost, Academic Program Development
• Kang Wang, Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science

===========

Section on Japanese Garden

From pp. 27-28:

The Carter Estate:

The Carter Estate, located at 626 Siena Way, Bel Air, about one milefrom campus, is situated on 0.85 acres and includes a two story residence andan adjacent guest house in approximately 7300 gross square feet. The house wasvacated by Mrs. Carter in early 2006. The house, which has remained vacantsince Mrs. Carter’s departure, is currently being managed by UCLA AssetManagement.

In June, 2007, the value of this property was appraised at $9,000,000.The University is free to sell this property (via a competitive public bidprocess) but the proceeds must fund seven endowments specified by Mr. Carterincluding endowed chairs in the College, Anderson and the School of Medicine, amaintenance endowment for the Japanese Gardens, the establishment of an arthistory research center in the College, a student awards fund for Anderson anda discretionary fund for the director of the Jules Stein Eye Institute. In2006, the estimate of the amount needed to fund the corpus for these endowmentswas $4.7 million. As such, the net proceeds from the sale of the home would benet of the $4.7 million.

The Japanese Gardens:

The UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and the UCLA Carter House(described above) were, prior to December 1964 part of a single parcel ofapproximately 1.94 acres. In 1964 the Gardens portion of the site was separatedfrom the Carter House portion. The 1964 grant deed transferring the property tothe Regents was amended in 1982 with the requirement that the University namesthe garden for Mrs. Carter and retain it in perpetuity. 

Significant research has beencompleted on the process (via the California Attorney General) required toremove the restriction on the Garden so that the University could then sell theproperty. We are advised that it would be possible to remove the restriction butthe outcome is not certain. And, there would likely be some politicalramifications from various groups about the sale of the Gardens as a potentialbuilding site.

In 2007, the MAI appraisal indicates a value of $5.7 million if theproperty can be sold without the deed restriction to maintain it as the Gardensand $3.4 million with the restriction intact.

The combined value of selling both the Carter House and the Gardens(with the restriction on the Gardens in place) was $12.5 million. The value ofthe combined properties without restrictions was estimated in 2007 at $14.7million. Of course property values since 2007 have declined, thus an updatedappraisal would be required to ascertain the current value of these properties.

==============

Link to report:

Open publication - Free publishing - More branding

It is not known how much time was spent by the Task Force specifically on the Japanese Garden issue.  During the period in which the task force operated, UCLA had a website for the garden which has since been taken down.  However, you can see the website as it was - and as it was available to the task force at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20100815093728/http://www.japanesegarden.ucla.edu/

We're still waiting for the hotel business plan

The UCLA Faculty Association requested the hotel/conference center business plan documentation a long time ago under the state's Public Records Act.

Time seems to go by so slowly in Murphy Hall:

UCLA History: Bunche Instructor

Photo of an unidentified professor at UCLA's Vermont Avenue campus in 1925 said to be one of the instructors of Ralph Bunche.