405 Closure Tonight and Tomorrow Night

The northbound I-405 (all lanes) will be closed from Santa Monica Boulevard to Wilshire Boulevard from midnight until 5 am on the morning of Tuesday, November 26th.

Also, there will be another closure the following day, November 27th, Midnight until 5 am.

Sit-In at GSEIS

A complicated story of a sit-in at a class at GS&EIS is emerging.  There were earlier reports in the Daily Bruin [see links below] and elsewhere.  This one - excerpted below from Inside Higher Ed - gives the clearest description:

...(S)ome graduate students are weighing in on what they see as a climate of hostility toward minority students, both in the Graduate School of Education’s Information’s Social Science and Comparative Education division and at UCLA as a whole. But the grad students' interruption of a class session with a sit-in has other graduate students questioning their tactics -- and some say their accusations are unfair....

Regular coursework was suspended for about an hour because of the sit-in. “A hostile campus climate has been the norm for Students of Color in this class throughout the quarter as our epistemological and methodological commitments have been repeatedly questioned by our classmates and our instructor,” the group’s letter reads. The statement accuses “the professor” (it does not identify Rust by name) of correcting “perceived grammatical choices that in actuality reflect ideologies” and “repeatedly questioning the value of our work on social identity and the related dynamics of oppression, power and privilege.” The “barrage of questions by white colleagues and the grammar ‘lessons’ by the professor have contributed to a hostile class climate,” it continues.

(Kenjus Waston, a black Ph.D. candidate in the division and an organizing member of UCLA Call 2 Action: Graduate Students of Color), whose research focuses on black men and microagressions in higher education, said some within the division – he did not wish to name specific professors or peers – have questioned his research as “too subjective,” he said. In another case that best exemplifies the "grammar 'lessons'" referenced in group's letter, he said, another student who chose to capitalize the first letter in the word “Indigenous” in her research papers saw it changed to a lowercase throughout. Watson said that correction disregarded the writer's scholarly advocacy and had other "ideological implications." Rust also insisted on Chicago Manual of Style form in research papers, even though some in the group wanted to use American Psychological Association style, in line with their more social science-oriented research...

Some faculty members also have criticized the group. John Ellis, head of the California Association of Scholars and professor emeritus of German literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said it was a professor's job to correct grammatical errors, and that doing so did not constitute racism. Moreover, he said, "stealing time" from other students in the class during the sit-in merited punitive action by UCLA against the protesters. A UCLA spokesman declined to respond to a question about possible punishment for the students, citing Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act regulations...

Full story at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/11/25/ucla-grad-students-stage-sit-during-class-protest-what-they-see-racially-hostile

Earlier stories in the Daily Bruin are at:

http://dailybruin.com/2013/11/20/students-defend-professor-after-sit-in-over-racial-climate/

http://dailybruin.com/2013/11/14/ucla-grad-students-stage-sit-in-following-recent-discrimination-report/

The story has been picked up on the Internet, especially the grammar angle, e.g.:

http://www.westernjournalism.com/ucla-protesters-call-good-grammar-racist/

http://www.examiner.com/article/ucla-grad-students-charge-that-correcting-spelling-grammar-is-racist

Update on ObamaJam Today

Yesterday, we posted about a possible upcoming ObamaJam today due to a presidential visit.  Here is an update:

Not to worry

Drivers were warned Sunday to expect presidential motorcades across a broad swath of the Westside during Monday afternoon's rush hour, as Barack Obama plans to cross from Westwood to the Beverly Hills area. Los Angeles police warned that Air Force One will touch down at LAX between 4 and 5 p.m. Monday, possibly closing streets in the World Way West area, near Playa del Rey. Although exact plans were not released, the president will apparently follow past patterns and take a helicopter up the coast from LAX over Venice to Santa Monica, then turn northeast to a helipad at the Veterans Administration hospital in Westwood, off Wilshire Boulevard west of the San Diego (405) Freeway. Los Angeles police warned drivers to brace for a possible motorcade starting after 4:45 p.m. from the Westwood area, heading to the Beverly Hills or Beverly Center area. Delays are possible in the area bounded by the 405 on the west, Santa Monica Boulevard on the north, La Cienega Boulevard on the east, and Venice Boulevard on the south...

Full story at centurycity.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/police-warn-of-traffic-due-to-obama-visit

Possible ObamaJam Monday

Various websites are indicating that President Obama will be landing at LAX and going to various Westside sites for fundraising on Monday afternoon.  The sites appear to be in Beverly Hills and Hancock Park, so not immediately in the UCLA vicinity.  However, to the extent there is travel at or near the 405...  Well, you know.

UCLA History: Poking Fun in 1963 at "Sensitivity Training" Courses at the Then-School of Business Administration

UCLA in the 1960s

UCLA offered various sensitivity training courses in the 1960s and 1970s, featuring T-Groups and the like.  Today, sensitivity training is typically aimed at particular issues such as racial or sex discrimination.  At the time, it was more generally aimed at self understanding, which was thought to make management executives more effective.  The technique, which could resemble group therapy, was controversial.  What was then the School of Business Administration - now the Anderson School - was a center for such course offerings and research.  

Because of the "touchy-feely" element, it was satirized by radio commentator and humorist Jean Shepherd on his broadcast of Nov. 18, 1963 on WOR, New York City.  You can hear his broadcast at the link below:

Permanent? No Exit?

UCLA Facilities Management is circulating the message:

Traffic Notice Full Closure

Description

The Montana Avenue off-ramp from northbound I-405 will close permanently at 6 am on Monday, November 25th. The I-405 northbound off-ramp to Sunset Boulevard will be reopen at the same time.

When: Monday, November 25th at 6 am

Where: I-405 Northbound Off-ramp to Montana; I-405 Northbound Off-ramp to Sunset 

===
What is unclear is whether the closure on Montana is really permanent.  When yours truly went to the Facilities Management website from which this message is supposed to have derived, there was no mention of a permanent closure of the Montana off-ramp.  The website from Metro about the 405 project also had no mention, at least none I could find.

Well, perhaps there is some greater meaning in having no exit on Montana:

Union for Docs at Student Health Centers

From the Daily Bruin: On Thursday, the University of California formally recognized the Union of American Physicians and Dentists as the exclusive representative of doctors working at any of the student health centers. The campaign to unionize began with a few University doctors who reached out to the union in December 2012. Physicians voted in April to appeal to the UC to recognize the union. Doctors were motivated to join the union because they want more input and autonomy in running the UC student health centers, said Dr. Stuart Bussey, president of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists...

Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2013/11/22/uc-recognizes-union-of-american-physicians-and-dentists/