Friday, November 20, 2009

A Crisis in Public Education

One could not help but notice that my University has been making the headlines lately but not entirely for the right reasons. When I first came to UCLA there was no tuition for California residents and this led to a renaissance of learning without relevance to financial status and a concomitant immense benefit to the state. I would in fact trace as one example the development of the Silicon Valley innovativeness in computer and web technology directly to this far sighted altruistic mentality. But then came Governor Ronald Reagan and a newly instituted tuition underwent a inexorable increase every year. But this year the increase reached the incredible value of 32% and the students have revolted.

The students might be interested in a small fruitless battle I led recently attempting to convince the UCLA administration not to misallocate the scarce resources of the State. I copy the letter I sent to the UCLA Chancellor below:

“I am a Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics and have been at UCLA for the last 41 years. I find it hard to believe that UCLA is going forward with a $185 million renovation of Pauley Pavillon at a time when courses are being eliminated and faculty and staff salaries are being cut. The article in UCLA Today states that, out of the required $185 million, "..we have $52 million that has been committed to date toward that goal..", and that the remainder of the funding will come from "..$15 million in Student Programs, Activities and Resources Center fees and $10 million in Student Seismic fees.." and "..$60 million in external financing..". The article attempts to justify this expenditure by stating that ".. this is an important symbol of UCLA's overall reputation for excellence.." However, the symbol of excellence for a great University is the quality of its faculty in teaching and research, not athletics and public events and concerts. … This is a true misallocation of scarce resources at this time of financial crisis and should be reversed.”

About the same time, there was a Letter to the Editor of the LA Times by the ex Chair of the committee involved in the Pauley renovation project, who was fired when he complained about the proposed huge increase in costs. This letter provided additional factual information which made my letter seem a drop in the bucket.

I received in due course a response from the "Vice Chancellor for External Affairs" which attempted to justify these planned expenditures but succeeded only in strengthening my objections. At that point I saw the futility of it all and let it ride. But now it would appear that this misallocation of scare resources has come home to roost.

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