ROTC at UCLA's old Vermont Avenue campus: 1928 |
Note that UCLA is closed tomorrow although Veterans’ Day is
today. There is a bit of history
here. UC did not always close on
Veterans’ Day. When Gray Davis was governor,
however, someone complained about UC being open. The governor couldn’t order UC to close but
the powers-that-be went along with his request to do so.
As yours truly recalls it, the Faculty
Welfare committee at UCLA - and possibly others in the Academic Senate - noted
that with a ten-week fall quarter, cutting a day out of the term would reduce
instructional time in a twice-a-week course by 5% and a once a week course by
10% if Veterans’ Day fell on a class day.
(Actually, the loss is more than that because typically some class time is
used for exams, not instruction.)
Courses would have to be revised to have less content or an irregular
day would have to be scheduled for a make-up session (which some students could
not attend due to schedule conflicts and for which a room might not be
available). It was suggested that the
powers-that-be consider giving non-instructional staff a day off but not
reducing class time. That is, faculty
wanted to teach. A “day off” for faculty is
meaningless and bad for students. Alternatively, the powers-that-be could have
done what they eventually did later about Chavez day and schedule the
university’s celebration of it on a non-instructional day.
Needless to say, the faculty’s suggestion was
not heeded. Now, even when Veterans’ Day
falls a non-instructional day as it does today (Sunday), UCLA is closed for
instruction on Monday – an instructional day.
Go figure. And by the way, yours truly checked the academic calendar for USC at http://academics.usc.edu/calendar/. No closure there tomorrow. Tried CalTech, too, at http://www.caltech.edu/calendar/academic No closure there tomorrow, either. I suppose one interpretation could be that the folks at those institutions are not as patriotic as the folks at UCLA. But there might be other interpretations.
Undoubtedly, UCOP might well think it is politically savvy to have an extra holiday at the request of a former governor. But how politically savvy is it to have a "day off" from instruction at UC when the same day off is not common in the private sector where most voters are employed?
Undoubtedly, UCOP might well think it is politically savvy to have an extra holiday at the request of a former governor. But how politically savvy is it to have a "day off" from instruction at UC when the same day off is not common in the private sector where most voters are employed?
Be that history as it may, we provide a musical selection below
for Veterans’ Day - which was originally Armistice Day celebrating the end of
World War I:
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