Thomas Soteros-Mcnamara Send your pity
comments to [email protected]
The gap between rich and poor continues to haunt Los Angeles and
UCLA. Walk west along 11th Street from the Staples Center, and
notice the separate entrances for plebeians and patricians, rich
and poor.
After passing the Harbor Freeway, you will encounter 10th Street
Elementary. It was recently repainted, and has a whole new set of
computers donated by none other than the Staples Center. But
unfortunately, most schools like it are not as lucky in Los
Angeles’ poorer neighborhoods. The children probably have
never been inside the arena. Walking along Westwood Boulevard,
you’ll notice the giant new hospital construction and the
various biomedical research centers. And a little farther toward
campus, you’ll notice the crisis-ridden student union, the
overcrowded campus shuttle, and the lack of parking.
Most people easily recognize the stark disparity of wealth
downtown, but probably not as readily on campus.
At UCLA, the gap between rich and poor institutions might appear
at first to be simply an academic question. You acknowledge that
there is a wealth gap, but that its impact on you is uncertain. But
the analogy between UCLA and the greater city in this regard is
closer than it seems. Here, however, the wealth disparity is not
about neighborhoods and jobs, but between segments within the
university itself.
How does the Medical Center stack up against the Athletics
Department, ASUCLA, Transportation Services, and the College of
Letters & Science? At first, it might seem trivial to look at
different parts of campus and compare how profitable they are. But
if you do, interestingly enough, you would understand the greater
logic of how UCLA runs. Parking and housing, for example, are
struggling to escape bond-induced debt because of increased demand.
The Athletics Department fights to stay out of the red every year,
despite having successful football and basketball programs. ASUCLA
totters on the brink of bankruptcy.
If all this is true, then you might wonder how the university
survives. Research is one way, a hospital is another. Big events
like the Festival of Books also rake it in. You may wonder why this
disparity of profit should concern students. Consider that
undergraduate students tend to depend on services that are not
nearly as profitable as some services unrelated to undergrads. Many
Bruins tend to be fatalistic and consider it natural for
undergraduates to be exploited the most. It might even appear that
this system works well since UCLA has no shortage of people eager
to enroll, no matter how awful undergrad services become. The
average UCLA student is pretty apathetic about life in general, so
the UC Board of Regents, Murphy Hall, and others do not see the
need for a sudden burst of sympathy toward the heaving undergrad
masses.
Nevertheless, the university has reason to worry. Now, more than
ever, most students are still supported by their parents. It does
not matter how appealing UCLA is to a high school senior should his
or her family not agree. Adults want the university to make an
investment in the development of their undergraduate children, just
as these same adults make a financial investment in the school
itself. There is no question how someone like Al Carnesale feels
about this, but he must recognize that the customer, not the
chancellor, is always right.
The typical undergrad Bruin does not benefit academically from
the hospital’s MRI machine, the size of the law school
library, or the university’s award-winning architecture.
The average Joe Bruin does benefit by having smaller class size,
affordable housing, and decent transportation solutions, among
services. During my short stint here, I can say that the university
consistently failed to address all of the above issues with any
real sense of purpose.
Alas, a string of donations have made our administration believe
that student-support related issues will dissipate if the high-end
academic reputation of the school remains strong.
The error in this reasoning lies in the fact that, should the
average student become disenfranchised, the enrollment and rating
statistics will eventually bear it out. These statistics then play
a large part in determining how highly UCLA is ranked and how much
academic prestige it can muster.
This story is not over, however. BruinGo! remains alive and
kicking and state lawmakers are looking into subsidizing the cost
of on-campus housing.
The Arthur Ashe Health Center just received a new accreditation.
Perhaps the administration is about to turn over a new leaf and put
undergraduate education at a top priority.
Yeah right, and the Staples Center management wants to give 10th
Street Elementary its own luxury box.