Inquiring minds want to know...

From a recent email by the chair of the UCLA Academic Senate sent to all Senate members: ...By now, many of you have seen the announcement that UCLA acquired the former Westside Pavilion shopping mall for development as a UCLA Research Park, which will house the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering. This is the third property acquisition for UCLA in 15 months (in addition to the Trust Building in downtown Los Angeles and the UCLA South Bay Campus in Palos Verdes and San Pedro).

While each of these properties are tied to the academic mission of research, teaching and service (which should also inform decision making regarding their use), many of you may be asking how we can afford these acquisitions in the context of the recent labor contract for graduate student academic employees, the modest salary increases for faculty (which were offset for many by increases in health insurance costs) and other financial challenges to campus. It’s a fair question, and one that the Senate leadership has raised. It will be important to involve faculty in decision-making for each of these properties, and to be transparent about both the short- and long-term costs and benefits of these acquisitions. We’ve encouraged administration to seek input from faculty in the process of campus expansion to ensure we are prioritizing the academic mission and serving all parts of campus. We encourage you to send questions to your Legislative Assembly (LgA) representatives (Chancellor Block and EVCP Hunt will present at the LgA meeting on February 8, 2024), to attend any information sessions about the acquisitions and to otherwise engage on envisioning how these properties can be best utilized to support research, teaching and service...

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We look forward to February 8 when all will be revealed...or will it?