Disappointing News

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I really have no excuse now that I am working 12-hour shifts in the computer labs. In addition to spending lots of time looking for jobs, cars, and apartments, I've been making my way through my ever-expanding Google Reader. Two pieces of news that have kind of bummed me out this week:

1. Westwood's cinema culture is dying. The Mann National has already been demolished and the Mann Westwood 4 and Mann Plaza theaters are long gone. This week it was announced that the Mann Festival is closing. This wasn't too disappointing since I wasn't a big fan of the Festival, but what did devastate me is the news that Mann won't be renewing its leases of the Village and Bruin.

The Village is one of my absolute favorite movie theaters and my favorite landmark in Westwood. Additionally, the Majestic Crest on Westwood Boulevard is also for sale. I can't imagine Westwood without the premieres and wonderful single-screen theaters. I refuse to go to the terrible AMC 4 and go out of my way to avoid the Landmark Regent. I hope another operator takes over the Village and Bruin because Westwood just won't ever be the same without them.

2. The story is still developing but LAPD Chief Bratton is stepping down today. While studying crime policy at UCLA, I came to really admire Bratton's intelligent and innovative approaches to law enforcement. His introduction of the Compstat system in New York to better track crimes and holding precinct commanders accountable as well as his willingness to act on the Broken Windows Theory are both important moments in modern policing. He is moving on to the private sector in October and will be missed.

Graduation Speeches

James Franco's Rejected UCLA Commencement Speech

James Franco's Rejected UCLA Commencement Speech from James Franco

After Franco dropped out less than a week before commencement, we were lucky to have Brad Delson of Linkin Park give a surprisingly great commencement address that I am sure was better than anything Franco could have delivered.

Brad Delson of Linkin Park's Commencement Speech Part 1


Brad Delson of Linkin Park's Commencement Speech Part 2


And a modern classic: David Foster Wallace's Extraordinary Commencement Speech from 2005 at Kenyon College

Graduation Speaker

I know this is old news, but enrolling in classes today made me think again about my impending graduation. Why is James Franco the commencement speaker?

I'm not really a fan of graduation ceremonies. They just don't do much for me. One of the only reasons I'm not greatly opposed to graduations is that sometimes there is a cool speaker. For example, last year Bill Clinton was supposed to speak. If it was my own ceremony, I would have looked forward to it (and since I went last year anyways, I was in fact looking forward to it). 
Of course, the unions destroyed graduation for everyone last year and Clinton (along with many other departmental commencement speakers) refused to cross the picket lines. Luckily I've heard Bill Clinton speak on campus before and I met Hillary Clinton when she was getting the

 Mayor's endorsement, but I still won't forgive the unions for what they did to my friends' graduation ceremony.

Getting back on track: This year I was excited to see who the commencement speaker would be. If last year they were ambitious enough to get a former President, I hoped they would be equally ambitious this year. Someone inspiring, accomplished, brilliant, and with lots of experience and insight to impart to us. When someone mentioned awhile back that James Franco was going to be our speaker, I thought it was a joke. After a little investigation, I found out that it was true.

Now, I am a fan of James Franco's work. From Freaks and Geeks to Milk, he's done some fine acting. It was cool that he returned to UCLA and that he graduated last year. But I'm still a little disappointed that the school didn't aim a little higher when it came to finding a commencement speaker. One less reason to look forward to graduation I guess. 

An 8-Clap for Bike Lanes

Slate says the "stupidest" bike lane in the entire country is in Westwood. Go Bruins!

UCLA Admissions & Standards

The LA Times just ran an article about a UCLA student that touches on important issues about admissions. While I don't like the style of the article, I found Karina De La Cruz story quite interesting.

The 18-year-old De La Cruz graduated barely in the top 20% of her San Pedro High class and is competing against students with much higher GPAs and test scores.

UCLA officials acknowledge that some freshmen are admitted for reasons other than their grades and test scores, that some students come from dramatically different backgrounds than many of their peers but show academic promise.

San Diego State University was her dream school; she applied to six others, mostly UC and Cal State campuses. She never thought she'd get into UCLA, especially after San Diego State rejected her in February.

The average UCLA freshman boasted a 4.22 GPA in 10th and 11th grades, according to the most recent data posted by the school, and De La Cruz had a 3.365 at San Pedro High when she applied. She got a 21 out of a possible 36 on the ACT college admissions exam, ranking her in the 48th percentile in California. She scored 380 out of a possible 800 on an SAT subject test, putting her in the third percentile nationwide. But on March 8, De La Cruz opened an e-mail from UCLA, and a congratulatory banner popped up.

She's an illegal immigrant, so she isn't eligible for most forms of state and federal financial aid. The University of California system, by policy, does not require applicants to disclose their citizenship status: Officials say their goal is to find the best students, not to enforce immigration law. UCLA officials say they aren't even sure how many undocumented students are on their campus.

This reminds me of the difficult tradeoffs made between increasing diversity and maintaining UCLA's reputation for academic excellence.

The UC system is considering lowering admissions requirements by abolishing the SAT II requirement, getting rid of the requirement that students complete all of the a-g courses, and changing the GPA minimum. Currently, students are guaranteed admission into the UC system if they are in the top 12.5% of the state or top 4% of their school. Under the new proposal, students are guaranteed admission if they are in the top 9% of the state or top 9% of their school. One of the main purposes of these changes is to "cast a wider net" that catches more people of diverse backgrounds and increases diversity on campus.

While increasing diversity is an important goal, I am afraid that these changes are going to make my UCLA degree look less prestigious because of this lowering of standards.

Quick Brag

I walked into my Charles E. Young class on Monday and was shocked to see Sidney Poitier and Walter Mirisch sitting there. They just listened to Professor Young's three-hour lecture and then took off, but not before I had the chance to talk to Sidney Poitier and shake his hand.

I love UCLA.

Admissions Background

I've been officially confirmed as one of two student representatives to the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools (CUARS), a committee of the UCLA Academic Senate. Now is an exciting and controversial time for CUARS and UCLA's admission policies. I decided it would be a good idea to collect some background information on the committee and controversy.

Professor Groseclose's Resignation Report
This fairly long report is what started the controversy. Shout out: A letter by my good friend Aaron Israel is included on page 31 of this report.

Then Professor Groseclose did an interview with the OC Register that was picked up by AP and then showed up in papers around the country.

Gloseclose said he wanted to use statistical analysis to study the probability that students were being admitted by race. He asked for 1,000 student files, including essays, with the names removed. Campus officials refused to provide them, saying privacy issues prevented their release.

Gloseclose said he actually favors the idea of offering preferences to bring in more black students, but he is unhappy at what he calls a "lack of transparency" in the process.

Discussions within the admissions committee, he said, led him to believe his probe was being deliberately stunted.

UCLA officials have complained in the past that private universities such as USC and Stanford can "pick off" the best and brightest black students, because they can offer better financial aid.

Groseclose said that, at the same time black enrollments went up, low-income Vietnamese enrollments went down. Low-income Vietnamese applicants are typically among the most disadvantaged, he said, because few had parents who attended college and they often overcome grave hardships to enroll.

Here is UCLA's response on the admissions as well as a short letter by Chancellor Block.

The Los Angeles Times printed two Op-Eds about the admissions controversy. One by UCLA Professor Darnell Hunt (who will be serving on CUARS this year) and another by Heather Mac Donald who is a contributing editor to the City Journal

I also found this just-published profile of Ward Connerly, the champion of Prop. 209 (banning affirmative action in UC admissions), pretty interesting:

The now-banned affirmative action system has been replaced with other official policies. There is the Connerly-championed “comprehensive review,” which takes a holistic view of students. “We look at what school a student attended, what courses were offered, what courses you took, your socioeconomic conditions, whether you had a parent go to college,” Connerly explains. Also, the top 4 percent of California high school graduates who have taken the required courses are guaranteed admission to the UC system. In schools that are de facto racially segregated, diversity will be achieved in a way that doesn’t use quotas and is more palatable to conservatives. A third Connerly-backed pathway to the UC schools, through California’s community colleges, is supposed to further mitigate the effects of the ban.